The Man in the Mirror
by Chrono180
Summary: Third and final story in the Katawa Superpowers trilogy. One night, shortly after the confrontation at yellowstone, Emi is run down by a sorcerer with a very familiar voice...
1. Prelude: Night of the Hunter

Prelude: Night of the Hunter

Emi Ibarazaki ran.

This was not unusual for her. She was the school's track star after all, significantly faster than any other student at Toyota University by a wide margin. This time however, she wasn't running for pleasure.

This time, she was being chased.

"Who is this person?" she whispered to herself as she bolted down 15th street, her prosthetic legs make a pounding sound on the damp pavement. "What does he _want_?"

There was no answer from the parkness save the rustling of her pursuer approaching ever closer. Emi swallowed and put on a burst of speed.

Whoever it was, they were fast. They nearly matched her speed. And they were relentless, as the chase had gone on for almost an hour by this point.

With ragged breaths, Emi leapt over a low fence and entered a forested park, glancing back as she did so. The figure was roughly fifty meters distant but closing in fairly rapidly. In the darkness, she could not make out the figure's face, or a build, or even if it was really human or not.

She ducked under trees and over bushes as she attempted to lose whoever it was in the undergrowth. Unfortunately, midway through the park, she triped and fell to the ground, an exposed root catching her foots undeneath itself.

She gasped and stood back up, only to see the figure mere meters away.

"Alright then, if that's how it is." She stated, taking a dramatic pose. Her twintails flipped in the wind as she pointed at the other. "You think I'm afraid of you? I'm not." She clenched her hands into fists, only for a pale mist to appear from thin air.

The mist condensed into the spectral figure of a tall man with metallic grey wings and dark blue skin. It was a ghost, much like her father. Only not.

"Angel?" She asked, "You're dead..."

The ghost nodded, "Indeed," he stated, his voice echoing through the wind, "And yet I am here. You have power, more than you know."

Angel swung around and fired a series of projectiles at the enigmatic figure before them, but they never reached their target as a crimson red barrier interspaced itself between them.

"Reverto quo vos venit" a man's voice stated, and Emi couldn't believe her ears. A yellow bolt of energy flew from the shield and hit the ghost of Angel, dispersing it into the aether.

"You..." Emi began. She wanted to run, but a sudden fear took a hold of her. "It's you..."

"Redimio." The man stated and bright yellow rope formed itself around Emi's legs, and then another one around her arms. She fell to the ground and stared up at the dark figure. As the crescent moon shone upon him, she could make out a dark red coat draped around the man, though his face was still hidden in darkness. But that did not matter, Emi knew the voice. Unmistakably. She had heard it every week for the last four years, after all.

"Blood of a maiden who can pierce the boundary of death." the man stated and leaned over Emi's prone figure. She felt a pinch on her arm as a long needle was inserted into it and drew out some fluid.

"H...H...Hisao?" She asked, "Why are you doing this?"

There was a pause and the needle was removed.

The bindings on Emi's arms and legs disappeared, and she scrambled to her feet.

"For what it's worth, Emi." The figure said, "I am sorry I had to do that."

"Had to-?" Emi begin, but the man had vanished.


	2. 1: How to Build a Better Gun

Chapter One. How to build a better gun.

**Many years ago, elsewhere...**

A blue-haired young girl, five years of age sat on a bench in a park and thumbed through a book. It was a long book and hardly had any illustrations. She couldn't concentrate on it though, as she kept looking up to the other children in the area. They seemed to be having fun with their friends, some playing tag, others playing sports, other acting out some American show she had never heard of.

None of them had asked her to play. Not surprising, as they were total strangers to her, but she desperately wished that someone-

"Hey." a voice stated.

The blue haired girl turned around to see a child about her age walking up. She had striking blonde hair and a slight Russian accent.

"Hi there." the blue haired girl stated.

"Good book?" The blonde motioned the the copy of "The Phantom Tollbooth" the blue haired girl was holding..

"Yes, it is." the blue haired girl responded. "Hard to read though, lot of words, very few pictures." The blue haired girl gave a slight smile.

"Your voice sounds funny." the blonde stated

The blue haired girl blushed slightly. Her accent was apparently more noticeable than she thought. She fumbled around for a moment, then sighed. "I'm from Japan." she said, "My dad's here for a few months for his job."

"Japan, huh?" the blonde responded. "Long way away. I just moved here from Russia. My brother joined the X-men."

The blue haired girl paused for a moment, then set her book down.

The blonde fidgeted for a moment. "I was kinda thinking, since you're from a way away, and I'm from a ways away, maybe we could be together?

The blue haired girl smiled and held out her hand. "That'd be nice. My name's Shizune."

The blonde shook it happily. "Illyana."

**Now, present time, present universe...**

-"Thankfully the invasion in central park was repelled by the combined efforts of the Avengers and SHIELD. In other news, William Fisk, the so called "Kingpin of crime," his mysteriously vanished while awaiting trial under metahuman-related circumstances. Details are still unclear but-"

Hisao sighed and turned off the radio, then look over a schematic on his workbench. Second week on the job, and he was feeling the pressure to get things done. He really shouldn't be, after all, Logan has stated he could do just as much as he could fit in between his school schedule, but Hisao's work ethic led him to want to do his best, regardless. Setting down the diagram he picked up a soldering iron and began to attach a computer chip to a circuitboard.

"Ok, if I'm understanding this right..." he said to nobody in particular, "connecting this and installing it into the main console should increase the bandwidth on the danger room such that we can decrease the power usage by twenty percent..."

After a few minutes of soldering he put the iron down and picked up the computer part, then walked over to a panel in the wall and opened it. Taking a deep breath he inserted the card into a slot then attached a wire to the other end.

For a moment, nothing happened, and then every light in the room shut off at once.

"Damnit, blew the circuit breaker..." he muttered and rushed over to another corner of the room. Opening a different panel he looked on a long column of switches. "Ok, so seven, thirteen, forty nine and ninty two are out. So that's my workshop, two spare bedrooms, the blackbird's hanger and the danger room..." he quickly reset the switches and sighed. "Back to the drawing board. How do Forge and Beast _do_ this?"

He sighed again and took out the circuitboard. "Maybe if I split it into two chips on a binary path. Though the parts will take a few days to come in if I do it that way. What else can I do in the meantime?"

He picked up a list he wrote down of possible ideas. "Ok, energy weapons, improved security, uniform refinements, blackbird stuff... Or I could see if that pet project might be feasible..."

He thought for a moment and shrugged, "Well, the good news is that the term will be ending soon, so I'll have a break to work on... whatever..." He looked around at the workshop and shook his head. It was a mess, admittedly. Tools and components were scattered haphazardly around the area with little regards to rhyme or reason. Admittedly, it had been a lot like that to begin with, as X-corp Toyko hadn't had a technician since Forge left the division around a year ago, and the other members had barely touched the area since. Hisao had had to give the place a major dusting on his first day there, yet it still looked like a wreck.

There was a series of sharp rapid knocks on the door.

"Come in!" he called out.

There was no response. A couple minutes later, some more knocks occurred. and Hisao blushed when he realized what that meant. He rushed over to the door and opened it.

"_Hey Shizune_" he thought to the blue haired girl standing in his frame. "_Sorry about that_."

"_It's fine._" she responded. "_How's the job coming?_"

Hisao looked around the room. "_Eh... not great_." he admitted, "_Thought I was getting somewhere with this one project, but it overloaded our electrical system. Gonna have to start from scratch for the most part._" He shook his head, then shrugged, _"On the bright side, my first paycheck more than paid for an entire year of grad school_."

Shizune raised an eyebrow. "_They're paying you_?"

Hisao gave a nervous chuckle, "_Yeah. Logan offered me a... large starting salary. Very large. Ridiculously large in fact..._." his thoughts trailed off.

"_Must be._" Shizune responded, "_Grad school costs over five hundred thousand yen. Why'd he offer so much?_"

"_Apparently, technical know-how is in huge demand in the X-men._" Hisao replied, "_They've got over a dozen teams and only a handful of gadgeteers..." He glanced behind him nervously, "I'm not doing that well right now though. So far all I've done is build a few guns and blow our circuit breaker. I think I'm way overpaid..."_

"_Don't be absurd. I'm sure our leader knows what he's doing. Except when it comes to personal hygiene. Or a love life." Shizune responded. "Anyway, I was wondering if I could have you design something for me."_

_Hisao paused briefly. "What would you like?"_

_Shizune gave a slight smile, "I'd like something similar to a tranquilizer gun, but instead of tranqs, it fires hydrofluoric acid."_

_There was a pause. "Shizune, you must be joking!" Hisao finally replied._

"_Actually, no._" Shizune stated, "_I am perfectly serious_."

"_Dear lord, Shizune!_" Hisao thought out, "_Do you have any idea how dangerous that stuff is?_"

"_It's a weak acid._" Shizune replied

"_The term "weak" refers to how many molecules have their ionic bond broken, it has nothing to do with danger. Hydroflouric isn't just the most dangerous acid in existence, its one of the most dangerous chemicals on the entire planet!_" Hisao shook his head. "_I mean, if that stuff gets on someone's skin, it goes straight through it, past the muscles and starts eating away at the bone marrow. Horrifically painful and can easily lead to limb loss or death_."

"_Sound like the perfect weapon._" Shizune responded, "_Jar of that stuff saved my ass against Omega Red, after all_."

Hisao stared at Shizune.

"_Look, Hisao. In all the time you've known me, have I ever not been careful?_" Shizune grinned.

Hisao sighed and scratched his head. "_I suppose not. If anyone is cautious enough to handle it, you are. This is going to take some doing you know? Containing that stuff is really hard, it eats straight through most materials. Glass, ceramic, plastic... pretty much anything you'd make a tranq dart out of. Its usually stored in wax, but you can't make darts out of that. Give me a few days and I'll root through the list of substances that might work or jury rig something. But for God's sake don't let Misha get wind of this. Cause she'll want one and I think giving her access to this kind of chemical is a worse idea than giving her a railgun. And that's saying something_."

Shizune nodded. "_Thank you. I appreciate your being willing to help me._" She turned and walked out.

Hisao sighed and walked over to his laptop. "Ok, how to contain HF..." he mumbled. "Usually kept in wax, but some metals hold it as well..."

After a half hour of doing research, a voice entered his brain.

"_Hisao, can you come to the front?"_ He heard Psylocke ask, "_You have a visitor._"

Hisao blinked but got up, exited the workroom and made his way to the front entrance. It took a bit, as Hisao had never been great with directions and he still wasn't used to the X-corp compound, but he made his way there.

And to his surprise, Emi was there. Hisao opened his mouth to greet his friend, only for the twintailed girl to go into a tirade.

"Alright buster, I want to know what the hell you were thinking last night!" She began, " Pursuing me ten miles through download Tokyo, never letting up, barely saying anything! Where did you get so fast, anyway? I couldn't shake you at my top speed, and I can shake damn near anyone!"

"Emi, what are you-" Hisao began

"And why did Angel's ghost appear midway through the chase? I'm pretty sure I didn't try to summon him. Was that some telepathic trick of your?"

"I have no idea-" Hisao started.

"And why'd you take a sample of my blood? Do you have any idea how creepy and disgusting that is? "Blood of a maiden who can pierce the boundary of death?" It sounds like something from an Anne Rice novel! I mean, seriously!"

"Emi, I have no earthly idea what you are talking about." Hisao stated bluntly.

"You know, you scared me half to death and now- wait, what?" Emi stopped midrant and looked at Hisao funnily.

"Emi, I came here straight after school then worked in my shop until I went home at midnight." Hisao stated. "I haven't seen you since our run on Tuesday. Why would I even want your blood, anyway? I'm not a vampire."

"The person sounded exactly like you. Seriously. And you have a very distinctive voice." Emi stated.

"I was here for ten hours. You can check the tapes if you don't believe me." Hisao stated.

"Then who was it who attacked me last night?" Emi demanded.

Hisao sighed. "Considering the absurdity of this life we've been dropped in to, I can think of a number of possibilities. Kenji would have a field day with all of them, including clone, robot, skrull, and time traveler from the future."

Emi stared at Hisao for a long moment, then nodded.

"So, there's someone else going around with your voice." She stated. "How do we find them?"

"I have at least one idea." Hisao replied.


	3. 2: The Two Hisaos

Chapter two. The Two Hisaos

**Another world. Long ago.**

"You're leaving?" Illyana asked.

"Yeah." Shizune responded, "Dad's job no longer wants him here, so I've got to leave."

Illyana nodded weakly. "I'll miss you."

"Me too." Shizune stated. She looked back at the entrance to the airport and sighed.

"If it helps..." Illyana began and fished in her pocket for a piece of paper. She wrote something on it and handed it to the other child. "Here's my number. Call me if you'd like."

Shizune gave a weak smile. "Thanks. I will."

"Are you done yet?" Shizune's father asked, walking up to the two girls. "We have to go. NOW."

Shizune nodded weakly and her father grabbed her arm and began pulling her towards the airport. Shizune glanced back as she did so, looking at one of the only friends she had ever made disappear into the distance.

**Now:**

Betsy poured over a pile of paperwork. "So, assuming the retroactive warrants filed after Thursday's fiasco go through by next week, we should be able avoid the lawsuits that would otherwise result. Though considering the police bungled the paperwork last time, I guess I shouldn't count on it." She sat down her pen and scratched her head. Then she picked up a photo on the desk of her and Warren on top of her late boyfriends aerie.

"I'm so sorry darling. For everything." she mumbled, then set the picture down. Glancing at the clock, she shook her head. "I need a break. Last thing the division need is for me to suffer burnout. Especially with Logan running all over the world and Laura moonlighting as a writer." She got up from her desk and stretched.

There was a knock on the door. She went over to answer it. In the frame was Hisao, standing a short distance behind him was Emi.

"Hey Betsy." Hisao remarked, "Hows it going?"

"I despise bureaucracy." She replied, "Other than that, fine. Was there something you needed?"

Hisao fidgeted slightly then nodded. "Yeah, actually. I was wondering if I could use Cerebro."

Betsy paused for a moment. "Who are you trying to find? I'll plug myself in and do a scan."

Hisao shook his head. "Unfortunately, this is only going to work if I'm the one who does it." He motioned to the girl behind him, who gave a cheerful wave. "Emi seems to think there's another Hisao running around Tokyo. I can think of several possibilities, none particularly good. Trying to narrow them down."

"Hisao, you're not a mutant. If there is another you, he won't show up on our scanners." Psylocke pointed out.

"Not directly." Hisao replied, "But based on the files I read dealing with Proctor and the Gatherers, I'll be able to find him anyway. From what I understand, if a telepath is mentally connected to someone with the same core mind as himself, it produces a kind of feedback. By using Cerebro to boost my brain waves, I'll be able to localize that feedback and trace it back to its source."

Psylocke looked at Emi, "What makes you think there's anther Hisao?" she asked.

"I know his voice, Betsy." The twintailed girl responded, "I only heard it every week for, oh, the last four years? It's quite distinctive. And some guy with it ran me down in a dark alley last night. I want to know whats going on."

"Cerebro is an extremely dangerous tool." Betsy stated, "I don't think its a good idea for-"

And then Emi stuck out her lips. Betsy paused.

"Come on, Emi, don't pout." Hisao stated, a bit embarrassed.

Emi stuck out her lips farther.

"Oh, for..." Betsy sighed. "Do you really think that's going to work on me, Miss Ibarazaki? I'm not some man with a heartthrob or teacher you can manipulate. I've got fifteen years of experience with fighting the most horrid villains you can imagine. Trying to act cute with me isn't going to work."

Emi sighed, and turned away to sulk.

"Look Betsy, I'd appreciate it if you'd let me give it a chance." Hisao, "I mean, whats the worse that can happen?"

"Nervous breakdowns, insanity, coma, ." Betsy replied, "We've had at least one telepath die using it. Sophie from the Stepford Cukoos. Remember her?"

"Sophie was using a sentient bacteria colony as a power enhancer." Hisao pointed out, "Meanwhile, all my drug tests are clean. Wolverine's attempts to teach me alcohol tolerance notwithstanding."

Psylocke smirked slightly. "You really have been doing your research, haven't you?"

"Every night since I joined this crew." Hisao replied, "Read over three hundred pages of files so far. Look, is it really that much more dangerous than sending me to fight your crazed ex and nuclear fire in a containment suit?"

Psylocke scratched her chin. "I suppose not too much more. But I'll be supervising. And your friend can't come in."

"Really? Why?" Emi asked.

"Cerebro's parts are pretty delicate." Hisao responded, "And your tendancy to run recklessly down halls doesn't inspire confidence in me either."

Emi gave the two of them indignant looks and huffed. "Fine, but let me know the minute you find out. I'll be in the lobby." She turned around and dashed down the exit.

"As I said..." Hisao stated. "Eh, never mind."

"Your friends are certainly unusual." Betsy remarked.

"They've got personality, for sure." Hisao replied. "More than a lot of people."

"Very true." Betsy replied, "Cerebro's this way." she walked out of the room and down several hallways to a large staircase. At the bottom, she turned several corners and then came to a large door. She leaned down to a small hole and pressed her eye up against it. As the retinal scanner analyzed her corona, Hisao watched with a great deal of interest. Psylocke then placed her hand up against a panel and a palm scanner analyzed her fingers.

"Lot of security." Hisao remarked.

"If the technology in this room got into the wrong hands, the results would be devastating." Psylocke replied. "Count yourself lucky I trust you to even enter it. Misha never will."

Hisao chuckled. "Why'd you give that girl a railgun anyway?"

"It was Logan's idea." Betsy shook her head in annoyance. "He's never been a big fan of restricting weaponry. Even to people clearly unqualified to use it. Misha's been using it fairly well for now, but its only a matter of time before it goes wrong."

Hisao hesitated and as the two of them entered the room, he spoke up again. "Would you be comfortable with Shizune having something that deadly?"

"Of course." Betsy replied, "I trust Shizune completely. She's bright, resourceful, and a hard worker. I'd have no qualm with her being armed. Why?"

"She asked me to make a gun that fires one of the most deadly chemicals known to man." Hisao shrugged.

"Well, sounds like you have a project then." Psylocke picked up the metal helmet connected to Cerebro's primary console. She turned to Hisao. "This is going to be extremely overwhelming for you, I can assure you. I will fortify your mind the best that I can, but be prepared."

Hisao shrugged and put the helmet on his head.

Psylocke turned several switches on the console. "Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Hisao responded.

"Engaging." Betsy stated.

Hisao was nearly knocked off his feet by the swarm of minds that he felt as his consciousness expands. His heart skipped a beat, but thankfully did not stop.

"Relax and let yourself move through the consciousness naturally." He heard Betsy speak. He tried to relax, taking deep breaths. After a few moments, he felt less overwhelmed.

"Not as bad as I expected." He mumbled.

"You're doing better than I thought you would." Betsy remarked. "I half expected your arrhythmia to kick up."

"Thank Emi for that. She's the one who always got on my case about my heart." Hisao probed around the Tokyo area, searching for static. He flew through the streets as hundreds of miles per hour, scanning thousands of minds at a time. "You know, with some modifications, you might be able to alter this device to allow long ranged attacks as well as scannings."

"Project for the future." Psylocke stated. "Put it on your list."

Hisao scanned the city. Rushing down central and blazing past 3rd, then on to 7th. He scanned mind after mind, looking at everyone around...

And then lost his balance as a burst of feedback entered his mind. The helmet fell off his head but was caught by Psylocke. He tried to right himself, catching his breath and trying to calm his excited heart.

"Next time, we'll have you sit down." Besty stated flatly.

"Yeah, probably a good idea." Hisao remarked. "Found him though. Hotel on eighth street."

"Very well, shall we raid him or do you want to fight him on your own?" Betsy asked.

"I'd rather see if I can open a dialog. For all I know, he might have had a very good reason for chasing Emi, though for the life of me I have no clue what." Hisao stated.

"You sure? He did attack your friend." Betsy stated.

"I have trouble believe that Hisao, any Hisao, would callously hurt a friend without a cause." Hisao replied, "I'm the kind of guy who do damn near anything for the people I'd care about. I think the other "me"s would be about the same."

"Not necessarily." Betsy replied. "I met a version of my brother who was from a world dominated by Nazis. Same genetic code, but he was an utter monster. Tried to rape me."

Hisao opened his mouth. "Uh..."

"So I burned out his mind and psi-blasted him into a charred husk." Besty chuckled slightly, "He messed with the wrong woman. But my point is, this other Hisao could be completely different than you. He could be a Nazi, or a sociopath, or a murderer. You just don't know."

"Alright." Hisao admitted. "Keep the team nearby. If I get into trouble I'll signal you."

**Twenty Minutes Later.**

Emi turned to Hisao, "Are you sure this is how you want to play this?" She glanced at the door in front of them.

"Well, he's in there." Hisao replied.

"Yeah, but just knocking seems like a bad idea. Shouldn't we bust through the window or something?" Emi asked and scratched her head.

"Like Apocalypse and the Chronomancer did?" Hisao stated, "Just because we have superpowers doesn't mean we should just barge in without a reason. And considering how high up we are, it wouldn't be practical anyway."

"Well, he did hurt me." Emi stated.

"He took your blood, yes." Hisao stated, "But I think if he wanted to actually damage you, he'd have done a lot more than that. My guess he needed it for something."

"But what?" Emi asked.

"Maybe he wanted to clone you?" Hisao guessed. "I really don't know. Lets just ask him."

Emi hesitated. "By the way, should I tell Betsy about Angel? That I summoned him or something?"

"Not yet." Hisao replied. "She's taking his death pretty hard. I think we should wait before getting her hopes up."

Emi nodded and stared at the door.

"Look, if things go south, Shizune, Misha, Nate, and Betsy are right across the street from us." Hisao replied, "Don't worry, they deal with this kind of stuff all the time."

He reached out his hand and knocked on the door.

For a moment, there was no response.

"Maybe he heard us and is running out the back." Emi pointed out.

"We're on the thirteenth floor. I don't think that's too likely." Hisao replied.

"Unless he can fly, or teleport." Emi pointed out, "Or walk through walls, or is telekinetic. Or-"

The door jerked open, and both Emi and Hisao stared at the man in the frame. It was another Hisao, yes. This one was slightly older than the one Emi knew, was clad in a black shirt, black pants and a bright red jacket. Running down his left cheek was a nasty scar.

"Oh, hey." The man said, "Guess I should have figured you'd show up. Sorry about last night."

"Sorry...?" Emi began.

"Yeah, I tend to act irrationally when I've been up for more than two or three days on end. Let's try this again. Hisao Nakai, Earth thirty one. Good to meet you." he stuck out his palm. Emi and Hisao enhanced glances.

"Thirty one?" Emi asked.

"Every parallel universe has a numbering system." This world's Hisao stated, "Ours is earth twenty seven, so this man is four universes removed from us."

The other Hisao nodded and lowered his hand. "Yeah. Call me "Falsao" if it helps. Would you like to come in? I don't have much but I could heat up some pizza or order takeout."

Falsao walked back inside the door, then glanced behind as the two others. "I am, really, really, sorry, Emi. Did I hurt you bad?"

"Not... exactly..." Emi fumbled for the words "Gave me the scare of my life though."

"Yeah. That was my mistake." Falsao shook his head.

"I'll say." Hisao stated, slightly angrily. "You run my friend down and take her blood, and for what? Are you trying to clone her or something?"

"Not exactly..." Falsao sighed. "Come on in, I'll fix you some coffee."

Hisao glanced at Emi, who shrugged. The two of them entered the apartment.

They were immediately struck by how barren it was. A folding chair stood in the center of an otherwise barren living room, and Hisao glanced over to the kitchen space to see a couple empty pizza boxes sticking out of a trash can. Set on the kitchen counter was a small vial of red fluid. Emi's blood.

"I know it's not much to look at." Falsao stated. "I packed light when I came to this universe."

Emi walked over and picked the vial up. "This is my...?"

"Yeah." Falso sighed and fidgeted slightly "Could you be careful with that, please? It's kind of important to me..."

"You've got a lot of nerve you know?" Emi snapped, "You run me down, tie me up, take my blood and you don't even explain why."

"You're right. Look, I'm really sorry..." Falsao stated.

"Explain, and quickly." Hisao stated.

"Yeah. Ok, alright. The reason I took Emi's blood..." Falso took a deep breath. "I needed it for a resurrection ritual."

Emi and Hisao stared at him like he had lost his mind.


	4. 3: The Ritual

Chapter 3. The Ritual.

**Earth 31. Then.**

Shizune felt like she was burning up. The pressure in her ears was so great it felt like it would explode. As she laid in bed, trying to calm the nausea, she saw the door to her room open. She didn't hear it, nor did she hear as her father stormed into the room. He raised his hands in anger and started yelling at her. At least, Shizune though he was yelling from his body language. His voice wouldn't penetrate her ears. For a moment, her father paused, and then he stormed over to Shizune, slapped her across the face then stormed out of the room.

"_I wish you were here Illyana."_ Shizune thought. "_I miss you."_

**Earth 27. Now**

"You what?" Hisao asked.

"A resurrection ritual." Falsao repeated. "There's a number of components I need. One was the blood of a maiden who can pierce the boundary of death. I did some divinations and found you to be a suitable candidate."

"So, you're a wizard?" Emi asked in disbelief.

"Pretty much. I prefer sorcerer though. Wizard is a bit too "Harry Potter-esqe" for my liking." Falsao shrugged.

"And you just decided to knock me down and take it? Did you even think of asking?" Emi asked.

"Honestly?" Falso stated. "No, I didn't. I had been up for three straight nights beforehand and when I've gone that long without sleep my judgment goes to pot."

Emi set the vial down on the counter and shook her head in disgust. "You're incorrigible. Don't ever try to get near me again." She huffed and stormed out of the room.

The two Hisaos looked at each other.

"I am really sorry." Falsao stated.

Hisao shrugged. "I am too. I must say, you're a lot nicer than I thought you'd be. I was thinking you'd be like a mad scientist or a vampire or I don't know what."

Falsao shrugged.

"Who died?" Hisao questioned, "If you don't mind me asking."

"My girlfriend." Falso replied.

"Ah, Lilly?" Hisao asked.

"Good lord no." Falsao chuckled, "I haven't talked to Lilly in years. She left for Scotland ages ago."

"Then, Hanako?" Hisao asked.

"Nah, Hanako's a friend but we never really got close. She's busy with her own boyfriend and her job in the newspaper business anyway." Falso shook his head.

"Rin?" Hisao guessed.

"Would I date Rin? Seriously?"

"You'd be surprised." Hisao replied.

Falsao shifted uncomfortably in place like Rin was a subject he didn't really want to talk about. Then he shook his head. "No. I dated Shizune."

There was a pause.

"Really?" Hisao asked.

"Of course. That competitiveness was really appealing to me. Why, you surprised?" Falso shrugged.

"Kind of. I mean, I knew it was possible, its just that she's with Misha in this universe and the two are madly in love with each other." Hisao shrugged back

"Shizune reciprocated?" Falso asked. "Good for her. Never would have happened on my homeworld, least not after I came into the picture." He sighed and pulled out a piece of rolled up parchment from his jacket pocket. "If only..."

"Whats that?" Hisao asked.

"The ritual." Falsao responded and showed Hisao the front. It was covered in archaic symbols. "I'm translating it as I go along. Getting everything is going to be difficult."

Hisao stared at his other self for a very long moment, wondering if he should ask what was on his mind. Finally, he decided to go ahead.

"Would you like some help?" he stated.

Falsao nearly dropped the scroll in astonishment. "Wait, what? You're offering to help me? After I hurt your friend?"

"Yeah, I am." Hisao replied and sighed. "I know who I am, and you seem similar. Knowing how much we care about our friends... I don't know what I would do if I lost someone. Especially Lilly... If I was in your position, I'd probably do the exact same thing."

"Whats your heart like?" Falsao stated.

"Thankfully, not an issue. I received a healing factor with my telepathy when I gained my powers."

"You got a healing factor?" Falsao chuckled "Lucky stiff, I had to exercise my ass off to fix mine."

"Well, I did a lot of that too." Hisao replied. "I'll also check and see if any of my friends would be willing to give us a hand. The term ends in a few days, so we should have plenty of time."

Falso gave a big, broad grin. "That would be incredible! Thank you so much!"

**Shortly after:**

"You're joking, right?" Misha asked, looking at the danger room simulation she and Shizune had just completed.

"No, I'm perfectly serious." Hisao stated

Shizune shook her head in annoyance. [_You've got to be out of your head. This man hurt Emi, and you're willing to trust him?] _she thought and signed.

"It was a minor wound. And he seems to be very apologetic"

_[Your primary problem Hisao, is that you're too trusting.]_ Shizune shook her head. [_This guy could be a sociopath for all we know_.]

"And I don't want to put faith in anyone who would take Shicchan away from me" Misha added.

[_Don't be ridiculous Misha. It's a alternate universe. The other Shizune can date who she wants._] Shizune pointed out.

"I like to think we're destined to end up together. Regardless of what world we're on" Misha stated.

[_I hate to break it to you, but if you think that way you're going to wind up very disappointed. Destiny doesn't apply in relationships._] Shizune shook her head.

"It does in our case." Misha stated.

[_Cyclops thought the same thing. Then when that Magneto impersonator killed Jean, he wound up hooking up with Frost.]_

"I was pretty surprised that happened as fast as it did." Hisao pointed out.

[_It was for a good reason. Involves reality stagnating and the Pheonix Corp. I'm not sure if I can explain it myself, but you can call Jean up and have her spell it out. Unless she's died again in the two weeks since she was last on Earth.] _Shizune smirked slightly.

Misha scratched her head for a moment, then shrugged. "Anyway, the answers no. This time, at least."

[_And if you're going to run around the globe with this guy, watch your back_.] Shizune added, [_There's something about your description that seems very...off_.]

"How so?" Hisao asked.

[_I can't quite put my finger on it._] Shizune stated, [_But there's definitely something that seems wrong._]

Hisao shrugged and walked off.

**A few minutes after that.**

"A... resurrection ritual?" Nate asked, eagerly devouring a leg of chicken.

"Don't those kind of spells usually backfire? And in spectacularly horrific ways?" Armor added, munching on a bag of chips.

"Not always." X-23 stated, "Logan was raised using one once. Bit of a long story, that." She picked up a hot dog from her plate and bit into it.

Psyclocke politely cut off a small piece off her steak, then put it gently into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing, she chuckled slightly. "Not to mention my brother and I have been resurrected at least three times each by Roma. Though yes, usually, they do."

"Well, I was hoping you guys could come along and help." Hisao picked up a mini computer lying on the table, looked at its design then set it down.

Nate and Psylocke gave an awkward look at each other, X-23 paused, Armor gave a disgusted look.

"You think you should be inclined to ask for favors after getting Angel killed?" Armor asked, "You're full of it."

"Hisako, that was completely uncalled for." Psylocke stated.

"Well, its true." Armor stated.

Psylocke gave her an annoyed glance. "If anyone here has a right to get angry over Warren's death, its me. Your hostility towards Hisao is getting quite tedious, so kindly put a sock in it."

Armor glared at Psylocke, then got up from the table and stormed off.

"I suppose I should have expected that." Hisao stated.

"She just needs time." Psyclock stated. "She was irate at Hanako for a while, but got over it. Now she seems to be targeting you."

"Don't take it personal." Nate said.

Hisao shrugged. "I suppose. Would the rest of you like to come along?"

"I need to stay behind to handle the Corp." Psylocke stated.

"Laura?" Hisao asked.

X-23 fidgeted slightly.

"Don't want to do this life any more than you have to?" Hisao asked

X-23 nodded. "Yeah."

"Fair enough. How about you, Nate?"

Nate bit down the last of the meat from his drumstick, then sighed. "Normally, Hisao, I think your instincts are good. But, no offense, I think you're making the wrong call right now."

X-23 glanced at Nate, "What makes you say that?"

"He's got a black box in his mind." Nate replied.

Psylocke raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

"Yeah. I could sense it from down on the street."

Psyclocke scratched her chin, "Most unusual."

"Whats a black box?" X-23 asked.

"I second that question." Hisao added.

Psyclocke sighed. "Its a form of psychic defense. The most powerful form there is. If someone seals information in their head in a black box, nobody can get in. Not me, not you, not Nate here, not even Pheonix. Even cosmic entities such as the Grandmaster would have a difficult, if not impossible time, breaking the barrier."

"That's handy." Hisao stated.

"Very." Psyclocke agreed. "Problem is, they're nearly impossible to form. It can be constructed either mystically or psionically, but either way its extraordinarily difficult to even begin to create one, let alone finish it. The only person we have on staff who could probably make one is Jean Grey, and it takes her years. The only person she gave one is Cyclops, and that's only because he's got information in his mind that is so critical, anyone else getting it would be devastating to mutantkind."

"Then how did this "Falsao" get one?" X-23 asked.

"No idea." Nate stated. "But however he got one, it must be for a very important reason. He's hiding something. Something big."

Hisao shrugged, "Maybe he wants to keep the details of his sex life with Shizune private. She always struck me as rather kinky, after all."

"I think its bigger than that." Nate stated. "Look, I know you want to help him, but be on your guard. It's entirely possible this could end up badly for everyone involved."

**Later that day.**

"So thats the situation, what do you think?" Hisao asked

Rin looked up from the mural she was painting on the wall and furrowed her brow. "I think if he's hiding something, its good to find out what. Perhaps he knows why socks get lost in the laundry. Or discovered the secret of how to eat pomegranates without making a big mess."

"Well, yes, I'm going to try to find out what. But I meant more like would you want to help." Hisao shrugged."

Rin paused. "Hisao... I'm an artist, not a fighter."

"So you're not willing to help either?" Hisao said, a slight note of frustration in his voice. "This guy _is_ me. Why will everyone help me, but not help him?"

"Because you're not him. Its like snowflakes in a falling drift. They look identical, but are completely different." Rin set her paintbrush down and lowered her head. "Hisao..."

"Yes?"

"You've bailed me out of so many jams, and helped me in so many ways." A slight tear appeared in Rin's eye. "I'd do almost anything to help you if you asked, which is why I'm begging you to not ask."

Hisao opened his mouth, then shut it.

"I still see Bushwacker at night, you know." Rin stated, "His arm torn from his body, blood pouring out of his torso, the screams he let out as he knew he was going to die... I still hear him when I'm trying to sleep. I didn't want to kill him, but I had no other choice... I don't want to hurt anyone else. I don't think I can hurt anyone else. Not and remain the me I am now. If I keep having to hurt people, I won't be me anymore. I'll be another me that isn't as good. Please Hisao... please don't make me hurt anyone else."

A guilty look spread across Hisao face. "I'm sorry Rin. I didn't know you felt that way."

Rin nodded sadly.

"I could try to help the visions if you'd like." Hisao then added, "My telepathy might be advanced enough for that."

"No." Rin stated, "En gave me the same offer, but no. I need to work through this on my own. To make myself stronger, so that if I ever have to hurt anyone else... I'll know how to get through it."

Hisao nodded, then patted Rin on the shoulder, "If you ever change your mind, let me know."

**That Evening**

"Yes, I guess I can help.." Hanako set down the book she had pulled off the self and shrugged, then got up to look through the library shelves for another.

"Really?" Hisao asked, a note of surprise in his voice.

"Its no problem. Schools almost over, and the X-men have been trying to train me..." She fidgeted slightly.

"Well, the others are my friends too, and they didn't want to." Hisao shrugged.

"Well, running Emi down in the middle of the night probably isn't a good way to start off a potential partnership." Hanako shrugged. "So, when will we be leaving?"

"I'm thinking at the end of this week, once finals are done." Hisao replied.

"Do you know what we'll need to find?" Hanako asked.

"Not yet." Hisao stated. "Falsao is still working on that."

"I'll come too." a voice stated from behind them.

"Lilly?" Hisao said, somewhat surprised. "You think thats a good idea?"

Lilly grinned, "Of course. I mean, do you really think I'd have the two of you going into horrendously dangerous situations while I just sit at home? It was bad enough I couldn't help you look for the life seed."

"I thought you stayed behind to take care of me?" Hanako asked.

"I did, but that didn't change the fact I was scared to death Hisao wouldn't come home." Lilly replied, "And that was only two days. This sounds like it might take weeks."

"I just worry you might get hurt." Hisao stated, "I mean, you have no combat experience."

"Neither did you when you headed off to Chaparanga" Lilly replied, "I heal just as well as you, I barely even need my cane anymore, and I supposedly have molecular warping powers I can't seem to unlock."

Hisao nodded. "Fair enough. I'll pick you up a uniform when I go to my job tomorrow. Then Saturday we can stop by Falsao's apartment."

**Saturday evening:**

Hisao, Hanako and Lilly approached the end of the hallway. They were dressed in X-men uniforms, Lilly's was similar to Hanako's except with yellow highlights.

"I hate looking like this." Hanako stated, tugging on one of her gloves.

"It beats yellow spandex. Or a bright blue leotard." Hisao sighed, "But yes."

"I actually kind of like it." Lilly replied.

"Seriously?" Hanako asked, "This suit is so revealing. Especially on the legs."

"Like I said. I kind of like it." Lilly stated.

Hanako gave her an odd look, Hisao gave a knowing chuckle.

"I don't mind showing skin, Hanako." Lilly clarified, "Its just that there are so few situations I can do it where it is appropriate. The beach, for instance. I really enjoy going to the beach. And this is a legitimate situation where showing a little leg is acceptable. At least, if the other X-men are anything to go by."

Hisao let out a cough that sounded surprisingly like "Emma frost." Lilly giggled slightly.

"Known you for five years and yet you still find new ways to surprise me." Hanako remarked. "Do you have a codename?"

"Really? Even if its the four of us?" Hisao asked.

"Well, considering what happened when Apocalypse found out who I was..." Hanako's hands brushed across the right side of her face again, and winced.

Hisao nodded, "What would you suggest?"

Lilly thought for a moment. "I'm not really sure. Ideas?"

Hanako shrugged. "I was hoping you had some."

Hisao scratched his head. "Uh... Well..." he thought for a long moment, "Mollocke?"

"Mol-what?" Lilly asked.

"Well, you and Psylocke are kind of similar, and your powers deal with molecules, so maybe instead of psionic-warlock, we go with molecular-warlock. Mollocke." Hisao shrugged.

"How is she like Besty?" Hanako asked.

"Well bred," Hisao replied, "Keeps cool under pressure, striking appearance. Betsy was even blind at one point."

"No thank you." Lilly stated, "It sounds ugly."

"Justice?" Hanako suggested.

"Theres already a superhero by that codename. Two if you count the one from the New Universe." Hisao replied. "How about Sovereign?"

"That sounds more like villains name than a hero's." Hanako pointed out.

"Not really, it just means "Ruler", which kind of fits with whole ultimate power thing." Hisao stated.

"I kind of like that." Lilly said.

Hanako shrugged. "Alright then." she replied and knocked on the door to Falsao's room. There was a brief pause and then the door opened.

Falsao stared at the three of them, then his face broke into a big grin. "And I was thinking I'd have to do all this myself! Welcome, all three of you!"

"You think I'd skip out on you like that?" Hisao asked

"You never know." Falsao replied. "Glad you came back. And its good to see the two of you as well, Lilly, Hanako."

"Pleasure to meet you." Lilly stated.

"Yeah, good seeing you." Lilly stated. "And just so you know, we've got codenames. She's Survivor , He's Mentat, I'm Sovereign."

"Mentat? From Dune?" Falsao asked.

"Yeah." Hisao replied

"I wanted to read that book but never found the time." Falsao replied. He grinned and look at the three of them, then paused. "Hanako, I almost didn't notice. You-" he then shut his mouth.

"My scars are gone?" Hanako asked.

"Uh... yeah.." Falsao blushed slightly. "Sorry, my Hanako got over hers, I don't know if you're still sensitive or-"

"It's fine. Really." Hanako shrugged. "It's a very long story that could probably fill a short novel. I'll fill you in at some point. But yeah, I'm healed."

"So how will this work?" Lilly asked.

"Well," Falsao stated, "I've got a number of components I need. I'll let you know them as I translate this scroll, and I can teleport us to locations we might be able to obtain them."

"Teleport, huh?" Hisao asked.

"Yeah, it was the first spell I learned." Falsao stated. "Can be unreliable at times, I usually need to prep a ritual, rather than doing it spur of the moment."

There was a knock at the door. The four glanced at each other, then Falso walked over.

It was Nate.

"Mindblast?" Hanako asked.

"No, I'm going by "X-man" now." Nate shrugged, "Anyway, I reconsidered."

"And you are...?" Falso asked.

"Nate Grey. Most powerful mutant on the planet." Nate grinned, "Literally."

"Any relation to Jean Grey?" Falso asked

"Why does everyone ask me that?" Nate replied, a bit of irritation creeping into his voice, "This is just what I was named. I've never met Jean Grey. Or any other Grey. I'm my own man, not some copy of Firebird."

"Pheonix" Hisao stated, "Firebird is someone different."

"Whatever. Pheonix then. Anyway, you're this clone of Hisao?" Nate asked Falsao

"Parallel universe version." Falsao replied, "But close enough. Isn't calling yourself X-man kind of on the nose?"

"So what if it is?" Nate replied, "Anyway, I figured I'd hang out and give Hisao some help. Most of the other people on base get on my nerves. Especially Voidblast."

"Voidstar." Hanako corrected, "And why?"

"She's always bugging everyone to train their ass off. It's like this is her sole goal in life." Nate shook his head. "At least you are interesting to talk to."

"Thanks. So, whats our first goal?" Hisao asked.

Falsao pulled the scroll out of his pocket and unrolled it. He mouthed a few things silently, then looked up at the others. "The heart of an immortal."


	5. 4: Target Acquired

Chapter 4. Target acquired.

**Earth 31, then:**

Shizune stared at her phone for a while, then typed in "Why haven't I heard from you?" then pressed "send". She let out a silent sigh. It had been months since she had last heard from Illyana, and she had sent numerous messages, to no response.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed and a message popped up on her screen.

"Shizune," It began, "I'm sorry to have worried you with my inability to respond. I've been... away. Very far away. For a very long time. There's been... changes since I last spoke to you. Very big changes. Truth be told, you wouldn't recognize me anymore. Not as I am now. Right now we... have nothing in common. I know it probably hurts you to hear this, but it would probably be for the best if we ceased contact. I'm... not safe for people to be around anymore. If we were to remain close, it could likely result in your being hurt or killed. And I can't have that. I'm very sorry, and I hope that one day, you might find it in your heart to forgive me. Yours truly, Illyana."

Shizune stared at the phone for a very long time. As as she did so, a single tear rolled down her cheek.

**Earth 27 Now.**

"Heart of an immortal?" Hanako asked.

"Yeah." Falsao said

"Like, a literal heart, or something more metaphorical?" Hisao asked

"The former I'm afraid." Falso replied, sighing, "We've got to find someone who can't die, then remove it from his chest."

The other four looked at each other with disgusted looks.

"Gross." Lilly said.

"I know. Magic like this... isn't for the squeamish." Falso sighed.

"What kind of immortal would we be talking about?" Hisao asked.

"Pretty much anyone who can't die. Cosmic entities, mystical masters, mutants with omega level recovery." Falsao replied, "The ritual is fairly liberal on that part.":

"Ok, so options?" Hisao asked.

"Mr Immortal seems like a logical choice." Nate suggested

"We're not performing anesthesia-less cardiac surgery on a superhero. Even one who's a total idiot like Hollis." Hisao responded.

"Deadpool?" Lilly asked.

"Lost his immortality after that bit with Thanos." Hanako replied. "How about the Living Monolith?"

"Discorportated after one of Apocalypse's plots." Hisao stated. "Uh..."

"Loki?" Falsao suggested.

"Too powerful." Lilly replied. "Man-thing?"

"Wouldn't work." Falsao declared, "He's made out of vegetation."

"Also a hero too. Even though most people don't realize it." Hisao stated

"Azazel?" Falsao suggested.

"Who?" Hanako asked

"Nightcrawler's father. Demon-like creature from another dimension." Falso stated

"Doesn't exist in this reality." Hisao replied. "Here, Nightcrawler is the biological child of Mystique and Destiny."

"Really?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah. Mystique's a shapechanger, so she turned into a man to impregnate-" Hisao began

"TMI, Hisao. TMI. And I have no earthly idea who half the people you all are suggesting are." Nate replied.

"Cameron Hodge?" Hisao suggested, trying to get back on topic.

"No heart, remember?" Hanako replied, "He's now a disembodied head attached to a robotic body."

"Oh, right." Hisao replied. "Uh... who else is there?"

"Tyrannus?" Falsao suggest.

"Missing. Also." Hanako stated. Then she paused, "How about the Externals?"

Hisao scratched his chin and looked at his other self. "Would that work?"

Falso thought for a moment, "Yes, I think it would."

"Who are the Externals?" Lilly asked.

"Uh, they're mutants." Hisao stated, "Every so often, when a mutant suffers a mortal wound, they don't die. Instead, their abilities get kicked to the next level and they become pretty much unable to die. There were about a dozen originally, but some of them died... somehow... during the Legacy plague."

"But if they can die, they're not immoral." Lilly pointed out.

"No, but they have Omega level recovery." Falsao stated, "They should work for the purpose of this ritual. Which ones are still alive?"

Hisao thought for a moment. "If I remember correctly, Apocalypse, Candra, Gideon and Selene. Cannonball is one too, but he's a hero, so..."

"Would be the easier choice." Nate pointed out.

"Not happening, Nate." Hisao replied.

"So, Apocalypse?" Falsao asked.

"No way." Hisao, Lilly, and Hanako said in unison.

Falso paused, and a look crossed his face like he felt like he should tell them something, but it passed.

"I think Gideon's right out." Hisao stated, "He copies powers, and if he gets in range of my girl here, he's wreck the planet."

"So, Candra or Selene." Falso sighed. "Neither one would be a person I care to face, to be honest."

"What are they like?" Lilly asked.

"Candra's a telekinetic." Falso begin "Normally not a problem, but she's developed her powers to the point where she can turn a persons' superhuman abilities off by manipulating their genes. Selene on the other hand has several powers. She can control object to some extent by projecting life force into them, she's a sorceress with a fair bit of skill, she can manipulate flame, but not generate it, she has minor telepathic ability, and she's a psychic vampire. That last one's her big gun. She uses the life force she absorbs from other people to power her other abilities."

"And I thought Omega Red gave us problems..." Hisao sighed, "But we're not going to last two minutes in a firefight without our powers. To say nothing of my heart."

"So, Selene then?" Falsao asked.

Hisao glanced at the other three and shrugged. Lilly shrugged back, Hanako nodded.

"I guess." Hisao stated.

"Do you know where she's located or do I need to do a divination?" Falsao asked.

"Selene's whereabouts are well known, she's the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club." Hisao replied, "Problem is, if we confront her there we'd be going up against the other Inner Circle members. I know someone who might be able to get around that though."

"Really?" Hanako asked.

"Yeah. Sunspot? Robert da Costa? He's now the Lord Cardinal." Hisao stated.

"Since when does an X-man lead the Hellfire club?" Falsao asked. "Or is Bobby a bad guy in this reality?"

"Nah, he's a hero." Hisao replied. "He got the position from his dad, then was named Shaw's successor after the latter got his throat slit by Pierce. Sage joined up with him to make sure he stayed on the straight and narrow. I'll give him a call, maybe he can help us out."

Hisao fished into his pants pocket and pulled out a black handheld device.

"Thats a new phone." Hanako remarked

"The X-men gave it to me when I got employed." Hisao remarked. He touched the screen a couple times and a the phone began to ring. It rang a couple times, then the an image of a Hispanic man's face appeared.

"Yo." The man on the screen said.

"Hey Bobby, hows it going?" Hisao asked.

"Pretty good. Who is this?" Sunspot raised an eyebrow quizzically.

"Hisao Nakai."

"Who?" Suspot asked again.

"Mentat." Hisao responded.

"Oh! The new gadget guy. Yeah, I heard about you. Good to hear from you." Sunspot grinned.

"Likewise." Hisao responded, "Look, I need your help. My friends and I are going against Selene and we could use any advice you could suggest."

Sunspot blinked, "Dude, you're gonna get your ass kicked. Selene's trashed entire teams without breaking a sweat."

"Be that as it may, we still need to go up against her." Hisao replied.

"Who's "we?" Sunspot asked.

"Uh..." Hisao begin.

"Dude, you have no clue what you're getting into, do you?" Sunspot shook his head, "Sorry, but if you're gonna write a suicide note like that, I ain't gonna help you."

Falsao cleared his throat, "Tell him if he doesn't help us, I'll inform Cannonball about his dalliances with Boom-Boom."

"Ok, who said that?" A slight note of irritation crept into Sunspot's voice. "For one thing, Sam already knows. He walked in on us making out years ago. For another, that guy sounds exactly like you. Do you have a clone or something?"

"Something like that." Hisao replied. "Look, this is very important-"

"Robert, give me the phone" A woman's voice spoke up. The image on the screen flickered and a woman's face with blue hair and red sunglasses appeared.

"Sage?" Hisao asked.

"I prefer Tessa." the woman replied, "So, you say you seek to fight Selene?"

"Uh, yeah." Hisao replied.

"And who is going to accompany you?" Tessa asked.

Hisao sighed, "Well, there's me, my girlfriend, my best friend, this guy we found in one of Sinister's labs, and this alternate universe counterpart of me from four universes away."

"Two Hisaos?" Tessa asked, "Most interesting." She scratched her chin "I have every confidence you'll succeed."

Hisao blinked "Really?"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Sunspot's voice came from behind Tessa.

"Robert, think. Selene's an energy vampire." Tessa sighed, "Don't mind him. He never was the most studious of X-men."

"So, what are you...?" Hisao began.

"If you want to attack Selene without raising the rest of the club, she has a small observatory several miles distant from Manhattan she visits every Sunday evening to chart astrological patters. It would be the most likely location to confront her. I'll forward you the maps."

"Alright, thanks." Hisao replied.

"I will however advise you to think long and hard about whether you wish to make her your enemy. She never forgets, never forgives, and can hunt people to the end of the earth." Tessa added, her face emotionless.

"We kinda figured that already." Hisao replied.

"Then good luck." Tessa stated, and the phone hung up.


	6. 5: Selene

Chapter 5: Selene

**Earth 31, Nine years after Illyana's last message:**

Shizune stared at the excessively pompous gates of her new school. She felt a tapping on her shoulder and turned to her father. Shizune stared at his moving lips and the grand, sweeping gestures he was making and shook her head. Her father angrily grabbed her by the shoulder and pointed to the grounds of Yamaku. Shizune rolled her eyes and pulled out a small notebook from her pocket.

"Go away." she wrote down, and showed it to Jigoro. He gave a nasty look to his daughter, then slapped her across the face. He he stormed off, Shizue rolled her eyes.

"_Well, that went about how I expected_" she thought and opened the gate, glancing at the suitcase she was carrying, she shook her head. _"First thing first, locate my room. Second thing, investing what campus activities there are. Student Council, study halls, board game club, same as my last school."_

As she strode down the grass lawn, she noticed a tall girl with bright blonde hair standing in a group of several other students.

"_Good."_ Shizune thought. "_At least there's someone I like on campus. Although I have no earthly idea how I can communicate with her._"

**Earth 27: The next day.**

"Alright, so how does this work?" Nate asked, "you're some sort of wizard?"

"Sorcerer, and yes." Falsao asked. "I've scryed the area well enough so that I can teleport us inside. Once there, we prepare an ambush. You'll tell us when she gets close, then once she enters, we hit her hard and fast. We'll need to end it quickly, before she can get her bearings."

"Simple enough." Nate replied, and glanced at the other three.

Lilly put her hand on Hisao's shoulder. "You alright, sweetie?"

"Nervous as all get out." Hisao admitted. "Selene's deadly. And while we may have the raw power to take her on, I don't know if that will compensate for the lack of skill." he pulled the neural disruptor he had built out of his pocket and shoved it back inside.

Lilly patted him on the shoulder, "We'll be alright." she stated softly.

"Hope so." Hisao replied and turned to Nate, "How powerful are you?"

"Somewhere between Pheonix and the Grandlord." Nate bragged. "I actually burned out one of the devises Betsy tried to use to measure it."

"Grandmaster." Hanako replied, "And I must say I'm really glad you're coming along. What made you change your mind?"

"Got sick of Shizune and Misha nagging me, like I said." Nate replied, "And I think it's better to keep this "Falsao" guy where I can keep an eye on him."

"I know I messed up with Emi." Falsao stated, "I just-"

"It's not Emi." Nate stated, "I think you're up to something."

"I just want my girlfriend back." Falsao stated.

"Yeah, so why did you hop universes to do it? Couldn't you get the components on your homeworld?" Nate asked.

"Some of the components I need don't exist on my homeworld." Falsao stated.

"Such as?" Nate asked.

"The Adavanik Requiem, for one." Falso replied, "My universe's counterpart was destroyed by the Fantastic Four. It still can be found on this world."

"The Ada what?" Hisao asked, "Whats that?"

Falsao sighed, "Its a small black box with a red gem on the front. When the gem is depressed it opens a gate to an extraplanar dimension demons pour through. I'm going to be using it as a fuel source for the ritual."

"So where would it be located?" Hanako asked.

Falsao shifted uncomfortably in place, a guilty look spreading across his face, "We'll worry about that when the time comes. Lets focus on our current mission. Ready for the transport?"

Hisao looked at the others and shrugged, "Ready as I'll ever be."

Falsao whispered a series of incantations under his breath and a disk of white light formed under the five teammates. In a flash, they disappeared.

And reappeared in a room crowded with a large variety of equipment. Windows were spaced evenly around the room and the ceiling was glass.

"What the hell is all this stuff?" Nate asked

Falsao looked around, "Well, those are obviously telescopes, extremely powerful ones too by the look of it. Those two things in the corner are astrolabes, one a Zarquella Plate, one a Shekezka plate from the looks of it. That over there is a variant of a sundial. That table in the center is known as a Zij Al-Safa'h. There's an Egyptian Merkhet over on that desk, The one with the rings is an Armilley Sphere, and that array over by the southeast window is a Mandaka viewer, which was developed by Reed Richards to chart the movement of galaxies not visible with Earth-based telescopes." He gave a slight grin, seemingly proud of his knowledge.

"And why does she have it?" Nate added

"Well, a lot of magic depends on the locations of planets and stars. And on my world she's a fairly powerful sorceress." Falso replied.

"Great..." Hisao mumbled.

"By the way, Lilly, I had a question." Falso asked.

"Yes?" Lilly responded

"How's your relationship with your cousin?" Falsao asked.

Lilly raised an eyebrow. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, on my world you hated her guts. But here you're coming along to try and bring her back from the dead." Falsao responded, shrugging, "Against some very powerful enemies too, I might add. Are you close with yours?"

Lilly paused and scratched her chin, considering her words. "I don't know if I'd say we're close. We're very different in many respects. And its hard for us to communicate being that she's deaf and I'm blind. Hisao has been a help in that respect in the sense that I can see through his eyes, and he's trying to work on a way to help Shizune as well. However we don't talk as much as we really should. I've barely seen her now that's she's training for the X-men."

Falsao blinked, "Yet you still care enough that you're risking your life for a variant of her?"

"Of course." Lilly replied, "She's family. We may not be close but we're not enemies anymore. But more than that, its because of you."

Falsao raised an eyebrow "Me?" he asked

"You're Hisao Nakai, aren't you?" Lilly asked. "Thats a good enough reason for me to help you out." She grinned slightly and Hisao put his arm around her.

"Pretty much." Hanako replied, "So, what happened to your friends on your world?"

Falso sighed. "Lilly left for Scotland years ago and I haven't seen her since. You I still keep in contact with though you've become busy lately being that you got promoted to head editor of this newspaper. Kenji somehow got published, apparently there's a market for people who are extremely nuts. Emi won two gold medals in the paralympics and is now on the lecture tour."

"What about Rin?" Hisao asked.

Falso shifted uncomfortably in place.

"Did something happen?" Lilly asked.

Falsao sighed and rubbed his eyes, "You could say that." he admitted.

"Is she...?" Hanako began, a worried look on her face

"Dead?" Falsao asked, "No but she came damn close." he shook his head. "I didn't really get close to Rin, being that she had no earthly idea how to express herself. But I liked her well enough and her art was damn good. Least, from what I know about art and that's not much.. It's just..." he threw up his hands. "Look, fine, I'll tell you. Sophmore year of college, I hadn't seen her in over a year, then one day I got the inexplicable urge to visit her. I didn't know why, considering I barely knew the girl at that point but I called Emi and found out where she lived. And when I arrived..."

"She had tried to kill herself, didn't she?" Hanako asked softly.

Falsao nodded, "Yeah, I opened the door to her apartment and found her lying on the floor with an empty bottle of sleeping pills next to her."

"She's suicidal?" Hisao asked.

"Yeah..." Hanako replied.

"You knew this?" Lilly asked.

Hanako nodded, "After my kidnapping, she showed me to her apartment. She told me..." her voice dropped to a whisper, "That I inspired her to keep living." She gave a guilty look at Falsao. "And yours..."

"She apparently had worked herself so hard producing art that she suffered some sort of nervous breakdown." Falsao sighed, "Now I didn't really know the girl. But really, nobody knew her, and that probably was the problem. Nobody could understand what she was trying to say. Anyway, I started having another heart attack when I found her lying on the floor like that but somehow I managed to dial an ambulance before I passed out. I recovered fairly easily though I needed another surgery to implant a pacemaker. She..." He put his right hand on top of his forehead and sighed

"You never told me all this about her." Nate said to Hisao.

Hisao sighed, "Rins complex. Even now that she's on medication, I still have trouble interacting with her. Everone else does too. I think the Grandmaster is the only one who really gets her and he's a complete ass."

Falso nodded, "She took a bunch of sleeping pills, and considering she's substantially below normal body weight, I think you can guess how close she came to dying. Apparently the only reason she survived was that I stopped by pretty much right after she took them and the doctors were able to pump most of it out of her stomach. Another hour and I would have been too late."

"I'm glad you were there." Hanako said softly.

"Me too." Falsao replied, "I can't imagine if I had lost her..." he sighed, "She spent two years after that in a mental hospital."

"I think I can see why." Nate responded.

"Well, yes, but..." Falsao sighed, "The hospital wouldn't give her supplies. So every week Shizune, Misha and I would go to the store and pick up canvas, paint and brushes and then go and bring them to her. Then sit with her while she painted."

"How did they feel about this?" Lilly asked.

"Shizune hated it." Falsao admitted, "At first. She never really liked Rin that much, but over time she came to appreciate her drive. Misha loved it, mainly because that meant she could have Shizune and I in a room for hours at a time. Captive audience of a sort. She even painted a bit herself, though the didn't turn out that well."

"And you did this for two years?" Hisao asked,

"Roughly." Falso responded, "It took a long time to find medication that helped her. And even longer to find a medication that wouldn't kill her drive to paint." he gave an angry look, "The doctors wanted to discharge her after this one medication, which helped her mind but destroyed her muse. I fought like hell to stop that, and Shizune did to, because painting was that girls' life, and we _knew_ that if they had just left it at that, Rin would stop taking her pills and wind up back where she had been. Only without me to save her life."

"Weren't her parents involved?" Hanako asked,

Falsao blinked, "Didn't she tell you? She's an orphan. Least, my Rin is. Not sure about yours. Her dad had abandoned her mom when her hands got amputated shorly after her birth, and her mom found out she had terminal cancer the year before Rin's suicide attempt and wound up passing away shortly after. After that the only person she had was Emi, who was growing apart from her."

"And then the three of you?" Lilly asked.

"Yeah." Falsao sighed, "So the four of us wound up becoming a quartet. Especially once Emi went on her training regime and left Japan. We eventually found a medication that worked and Rin was discharged shortly after, and now she's one of the most famous abstractionists on the face of the globe."

"What happened after Shizune..." Hisao begin

Falsao shrugged, "Rin seemed alright. She explained once that she "puts sad stuff in one mind track and focuses on the other." or something. I still don't quite get how her mind works, but that's how she explained it." He shrugged, "Right now she and Misha are taking care of my son while I go on this quest."

The four gave astonished looks, "You have a son?" Nate asked

"Yeah. I we named him Ando. After the Hiroshige, the artist." Falso pulled a locket out from behind his shirt pocket, and opened it. Inside was a small portrait with Hisao on one side, Misha on the other, and an infant with blue hair in between. Falso closed the locket and nodded, "Part of the reason I'm fighting so hard is so that Shizune might be around for my son. Every child deserves a mother."

"Why wasn't she in that picture?" Nate asked.

Falsao shrugged, "We couldn't fit her in the frame. I've got her in others back home."

"Kind of odd you'd choose one without the person you're trying to resurrect though." Nate replied.

Falsao winced, "It's just how it turned out."

"How did Shizune die, anyway?" Nate asked.

Falso pursed his lips. "That's personal."

Nate gave a suspicious look, "Really..."

"Nate, cut it out." Hisao replied, "He's already told us more than he likely felt comfortable sharing."

"Yeah." Falsao responded. "I don't really like admitting the details about Rin, cause she's world famous, and a number of people have insinuated she "owes me" or somesuch. Which she doesn't. She would have done the same for me, given the chance."

"Suns going down." Hanako replied, "Selene should be here soon."

"I think I can sense her approaching now, actually." Nate stated.

"Alrigth everyone, hide behind the equipment." Falsao stated, "Once she enters the door we-"

His sentence was interrupted by the glass of a nearby window shattering and a black haired woman bursting though. She was dressed in a black corset and undewear, with thigh high black boots on her legs arm length black globes on her arms.

"INTRUDERS IN MY SANCTUM?" Selene screamed, "You DARE to violate my home?"

"She must have seen us through the glass!" Falso cried, "X-man, see if you can-"

He didn't get to finish his statement. Nate gestured and Selene was thrown by a burst of telekinectic force to the other side of the room. She slammed against a wall with force that should have defenestrated her, but didn't. The wall cracked, but her powers kept it intact.

"Survivor," Hisao began, "See if you can do to her what you nearly did to me!"

"I'm not sure what you-oh." Hanako winced slightly but held out her arm and tried to form a forcefield inside Selene's head. The vampires screamed and tried to stagger to her feet as the pressure built.

For a moment, it looked like the immortal villain might be taken down easily.

And then she hit a previously unseen button on the wall she had been thrown into

Flames erupted in the room as the area combusted.

Hanako screamed. A force field instinctively formed around her body, and she burst into tears.

"O-oh g-god. N-no.. no..! GET AWAY!" She screeched, going into hysterics.

"HAN-" Hisao began.

"Codenames!" Falso shouted, making arcane gestures with his hands. A bolt of energy shot out of his right palm, only to dissapate upon approaching Selene.

"I will tear your souls from your bodies for this affront." Selene stated, getting up from the ground and striding towards the others.

Hanako curled up inside her force field and began sobbing. Selene gave a wicked grin.

"Afraid of the flame?" She asked. The flames in the room flickered for a moment, then flew towards Hanako's force field.

"Leave her alone!" Lilly shouted and ran towards the witch. Then the floor warped and grabbed her around the ankle, Lilly fell to the ground, her foot trapped.

Hisao stared at Selene "_Fall_ _asleep." _He thought as hard as he could, whispering a silent thanks that his heart was cooperating.

_No, you fall asleep_. Her voice spoke in his mind, and Hisao felt an overwhelming sensation of tiredness take him, fighting the urge to resist, he turned to the glowing ball of flame. "You're going to be alright! He got out before yawning, "You can heal remember!"

There wasn't a reply except for a pitiful sobbing.

"Nate, do something!" Hisao snapped,

Nate nodded and a hundred psionic spikes formed from in the air and swarmed towards Selene, She gestured and one the astrolabes morphed into a shield that intercepted the spikes.

"You will all suffer." Selene stated, "I will make you feel pain like you never imagined."

Hisao gave a horrified look. Reaching in his mind, he reduced the adenosine level in his brain, removing the tiredness. Then he pulled his gun out of his pocket and ran towards the vampress, firing.

The bolts of energy hit her in the chest, causing her to slighty scar but quickly heal. Then the floor warped around Hisao's foot and he fell down.

"Sovereign," he said, turning to his girlfriend, "now would be a good time for those powers..."

"I'm trying!" Lilly replied, "I can't make them work!"

Selene reached down and picked Hisao's head up.

"Gonna make you pay." he muttered.

"Oh, I don't think so." Selene replied. White energy began to pour from Hisao's body and into hers, and he felt like his body was being torn apart. His chest started pounding, and he focused hard, trying to get it stable again.

"A healing factor." Selene stated, seemingly pleased, "Not only that, one from a godstone. Most delicious." She got up and began approaching Lilly.

A burst of force flew out of Nate's hand and struck Selene square in the chest.

She doubled over and collapsed on the floor, clutching her heart.

"What... is... this..." she mumbled.

The flames around Hanako's force field vanished, to reveal the girl in the fetal position. She lifted her head up and glanced at the scene around her.

"I can't... I can't.." Selene got out, then her body shuttered.

"Aufero caput capitis" Falsao stated, and a disk of blue energy flew from his hand and struck Selene in the neck, neatly removing her head. Blood poured out of the stump and Falsao walked up to the body.

"Hanako, are you alright?!" Hisao cried out, the floor around his foot disintegrating. Nearby, Lilly was also getting up."

Hanako slowly got up from the floor. "I-I-I." she stammered, then swallowed, "C-can I ask a favor?"

"Anything," Hisao replied, hugging her

"C-can you make me f-forget what was like b-being in there?" she whispered

"I think I'm skilled enough to do that now." Hisao replied. Mentally entering the library of her mind, he quickly skimmed through the shelfs. After a few minutes, he found a book entitled "Trapped in a fiery forcefield."

"_Remove yourself" _He commanded, and the the tome vanished. She would remember what had happened, but forget the actual sensations of it happening

"Thank you..." Hanako replied her hand feeling the right side of her face to make sure it was still intact "I'm sorry I just came apart like that but..."

"Its alright." Lilly replied, 'Its perfectly understandable, considering."

"Why _did_ you come apart like that?" Nate asked.

Falso looked up from holding a energy knife he had summoned where he was cutting open Selene's chest. "That's personal Nate."

Nate looked Hanako up and down, "You know, when I was in Hisao mind that one time, I found out you used to be scarred. Was that relating to-"

"Yes. It was." Hanako said, slightly irritable, "And I'd prefer not discussing it if you don't mind."

Lilly shot Nate a nasty glare. "You really are awful at interacting with people, aren't you?"

"Well, I was in a tube for most of my life." Nate replied, "Sorry. So what exactly happened? I would have though it take more than a force punch to take her out considering I threw her across the room a moment before."

Hisao and Falsao exchange glances. "Do you want to explain it or should I?" Falsao asked.

"I'll explain it." Hisao sighed. "Nate, I told you I used to have a dramatically shortened lifespan, didn't I?"

"Yeah, you said you had... what was it called?" Nate scratched his head, trying to remember.

"Cardiac arrythmia." Hisao replied. "It means my heart is extremely weak. I've suffered several heart attacks, particularly since I wound up doing this superhero thing, and before I got my healing factor, a solid knock to the chest could spark one. I'm guessing that when Selene drained my energy, she acquired that trait and you hitting her in the chest..."

"Ah, I see." Nate replied, "Wouldn't except that to come in handy in a fire fight."

"Neither did I." Falsao replied. He got up from the floor holding a bright red mass of flesh in his hand. "But it probably saved our ass. Anyway, shall we head back?"

"Yeah, sure." Nate replied and turned to Hanako, "Are you alright? You looked really bad for a bit there."

"I'm fine Nate." Hanako replied, "Really. Don't worry about it."

Lilly and Hisao looked at her like they weren't sure what to think. Nate just nodded.

"repeto" Falsao stated, and they vanished, reappearing in his apartment.

"Well, that was easy if unpleasant." Nate stated. "Whats the next one?"

"I think we'll give everyone a few days to recover." Falsao stated, "But when we reconnect, the next thing we need is essence of the timestream."


	7. 6: Recovery

Chapter 6: Recovery

**Earth 31, the past:**

Shizune walked through Yamaku's caferteria and spotted the person she was looking for. A brown haired girl who was sitting at a table munching on some chips.

[Hello.] She signed.

The girl looked at Shizune and shrugged, then said something that couldn't be heard.

[Come on Shiina, I know you can understand me] Shizune signed. [Nurse told me you were here studying sign language.]

Shiina blushed a little, then nodded. [Hi.] she replied, grinning slightly.

Shizune nodded, [Now, first order of buisness. How would you feel about joining the student council?]

**Earth 27, Now:**

Hisao walked up to the door to Hanako's apartment and gave a knock. There was a pause, and Hanako opened it

"Oh, hey." she replied, then looked up and down at the stains on Hisao's shirt and pants. "Messy day at work?"

Hisao chuckled slightly, "Yeah, I've been trying to make a more efficient form of fuel for the blackbird. Its still in progress though." his face then turned seriously, "Are you alright?"

Hanako paused and nervously felt the right side of her face.

Hisao put his hand on her shoulder.

"I..." Hanako replied, "Sort of. I don't remember being in the fire as an experience, but I remember that it happened, like if someone had told me it happened to someone else. Its kind of surreal, having my mind edited like that. It's like I'm missing a part of myself."

Hisao gave a guilty look, "I shouldn't have asked you to come along."

Hanako shook her head, "No, don't say that. Its was a risk I accepted when I started this." She looked at Hisao and then gave him a tight hug. "But thank you." She motioned to her room, "Want to come in?"

Hisao nodded and they walked into Hanako's apartment. It was lightly decorated, with a couple bookshelves in the corner and a computer sitting on a desk against the far wall. Hisao noticed the screen was showing a news article with the headline "WILLIAM FISK MISSING, SPIDERMAN RESPONCIBLE?"

"Would you like some cake?" Hanako asked, walked over to a fridge in a connected room. "Or brownies?"

"Brownies sound nice." Hisao replied.

Hanako nodded and pulled a plate out of the fridge with several brownies on it and held it out. Hisao smiled and took one brownie then munched on it.

"You know," Hanako stated, "I don't get why I'm the one the supervillains seem to pick on. The Chronomancer, Selene, Apocalypse..." she gave Hisao a funny look, "Apocalypse told me he wanted me to be his queen, can you believe that?"

Hisao nearly choked on the brownie he was eating. "Wait, seriously?"

Hanako nodded, "Seriously. I mean, what the hell? First of all, he's over four thousand years old. Second, he's a psycho. This life... its like I've become the protagonist in a magical girl anime or something."

"Like Madoka?" Hisao replied

"Not quite that dark." Hanako replied, "Thinking more like Sailor Moon. Only the villains are serious instead of cornball." She shook her head.

"Which of the senshi do you think you're most like?" Hisao asked, grinning.

"Mercury. You remember how shy I used to be." Hanako replied.

"As well as in intellect." Hisao added

Hanako chuckled.

"I can see Lilly as Pluto." Hisao stated, "With the air of regality."

"Shizune and Misha are obviously Mars and Moon, respectively." Hanako stated, "I can kind of see Emi as Venus. Who would Rin be?"

Hisao paused and scratched his head. "I can't really compare her to any of the senshi. Her mind is too unique to be compared to.. anyone else really." He shrugged. "There was something I wanted to bring up to you and Fitz though."

"Oh?" Hanako asked.

Hisao sighed "It's about Shizune..."

**Elsewhere:**

"Rin?" Lilly asked.

Rin glanced up from the wall she was lying next to and set her paintbrush down on the ground. She stood up and looked at the partially finished mural, then at Lilly.

"I think there's too much red." She remarked offhand, "Do you think I should cover it with orange or blue?"

"I wouldn't be the one to ask." Lilly replied, "I'm blind, after all."

"No, but you can see with your head." Rin replied and shrugged, "Thats actually better than seeing with your eyes. With eyes you only see the surface, like an iceberg that is poking out of the water. With the head you can see the entire thing."

Lilly looked the wall up and down with her psychometery, then shook her head. "It seems to be saying something, but I can't understand what."

"Exactly." Rin replied, "I can't understand what my art is saying either."

Lilly paused, then a thought struck her, "Is that why you paint? You can't understand what's in your head, so you show other people in hopes they might be able to explain it to you?"

Rin grinned, "Finally, someone gets it." she nodded, "Right. So far the only person who's been able to figure it out is En."

"You mean Grandmaster?" Lilly asked.

"I call him En. That's his name after all." Rin replied. "He's kind of like how Misha would be if Shizune couldn't talk."

"Um, Shizune can't talk." Lilly pointed out.

"Not talk to other people, talk to herself." Rin corrected, "She can talk to herself, and sometimes she even listens. But I can't talk to myself, I can only talk to other people and hope they can talk to me." She cocked her head. "Am I making sense?"

Lilly scratched her chin, "To some extent, yes."

Rin nodded, "Thats good. I never know if I make sense or not. I don't have a good sense of that."

Lilly nodded, "Rin, I meant to ask you something..."

"How to eat pomegranates without making a mess?" Rin guessed

"Uh, no." Lilly replied, "Are you suicidal?"

Rin blinked, "No." she replied.

"It's good to hear-" Lilly begin, but Rin interrupted.

"Used to be." She stated.

Lilly opened her mouth, but Rin continued.

"My mind thinks about numerous things at once. Its why I'm weird. One reason anyway. Besides the whole 'painter with no arms' bit and the fact I'm kinda am—but no-not-really-yet-still-half-sort-of dating an alien from another galaxy. And the fact I can teleport. And the fact my best friend has no legs. I've been set apart from everyone and everything because my mind like a colander underneath a sink and my thoughts are the water that rushes through it. You can't understand what thats like."

"You're right," Lilly replied, "I can't."

"Neither can I," Rin replied, "Not even I understand me. It's made me want to die in the past. At one point, I got a bottle of sleeping pills and considering taking them all, but I decided not to."

"Because of Hanako?" Lilly asked

"Right." Rin replied.

There was a pause.

"You know how she was." Rin continued after a moment, "You know how she was. She hid away from the rest of the world for the longest time, like a butterfly trapped inside a cocoon. Then she fixed herself."

"She wasn't broken, Rin." Lilly replied, a note of annoyance in her voice.

"Of course not. But she fixed herself despite that." Rin replied, "They say not to fix what isn't broken, but in her case, that advice was more like telling someone to catch their own fish a day. Anyway, she got better. I thought I could get better to, so I threw the pills away."

Lilly nodded, "Have you thought about suicide since then?"

"Its not an option." Rin replied, "But living might not be either."

"What do you mean?" Lilly asked.

Rin stared off in the distance.

"Rin?" Lilly asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Rin suddenly snapped her attention to Lilly, "It means I might need to become a different me."

"Like, change yourself?" Lilly asked.

"Yes." Rin replied and her mouth twitched, "Ever since I killed Bushwasher, I've been haunted by that day. I made him like me and he didn't survive it. I tell myself it was the only option, but I still see him screaming."

Lilly paused.

"I don't know if I can take the memory of losing him." Rin stated, "So I may need to make myself different in order to do so."

Lilly nodded, "If you ever need to talk, feel free to stop by my place. Hisao and I will do our best to help."

"Right." Rin stated and looked at her mural, "I think it needs more green. Orchid green, to be precise. Pardon me while I mix some."

**The danger room:**

Nate bit into a massive steak like he hadn't eaten in a week.

"_Nate, what are you doing?"_ he heard someone think, and turned to see Shizune walking into the danger room. _"We were supposed to be in the danger room fifteen minutes ago."_

"_I got hungry_" he thought back.

"_You're always hungry. We need to train_." Shizune replied, glaring at him.

"_Give me a break,_" Nate replied, annoyed, "_Just because you don't want any free time doesn't mean the rest of us are the same._"

"_If you don't log your hours, you're going to wind up dying even earlier than your powers would make you._" Shizune replied, snapping her fingers.

Nate dropped the steak on the plate in shock, "_Ok, who the hell told you about that?_"

"_Nobody told me,_" Shizune responded, "_I figured it out myself. The way you collapse after overexerting yourself is similar to what many extremely powerful beings experience when they overload themselves. Terminal life expectancy is a natural result from excessive power levels_."

"_Tell anyone and I swear to god I will kill you."_ Nate replied in anger. "_I really will. The last thing I want is to be some object of pity."_

Shizune paused at the seriousness of his mental tone, _"Alright then, I'll keep quiet, but you still need to train."_

"_Why would I need training?"_ Nate replied, _'I've got enough power to take out pretty much anyone. We just killed Selene for Christ's sake."_

"_That was only because she made a tactical error._" Shizune responded. "_You need to-_"

"_What the hell is with you?"_ Nate snapped, _"Near as I can tell, you spend every waking moment either in the danger room or in class. Don't you ever have any fun? Or are you adverse to goofing off for some reason?"_

Shizune gave a sad look, _"Its the latter, actually."_

"_Why_?" Nate asked.

Shizune fidgeted and looked down at her feet, "_I'd rather not say. The details are... personal."_

Nate looked her up and down.

"_I'm just trying to help, Nate._" Shizune stated, "_Fool around too much and it can sorely bite you in the butt. I know this from personal experience._"

Nate munched some more on his steak, a thoughtful look on his face. He then sighed. "_Since when have you fooled around_?"

Shizune shook her head. "_Its... complicated._" she thought back, "_Look, I'll leave you be. Just... try to train, ok? I'd hate for something to happen to you because you weren't prepared._"

She turned and walked out of the kitchen. Nate stared at the door she left through for a long moment.

"She seems a bit out of character." he mumbled, then went back to his steak.


	8. 7: Essence of the Timestream

Chapter 7: Essence of the Timesteam

**Earth 31 then:**

Shizune stared at the boy at the front of the room, while making a conscious effort to appear to be ignoring him. She threw a glance to the pink haired girl sitting next to her.

[He says his name is Hisao Nakai.] Misha signed to her. [He says he likes reading and soccer. No idea why he would be interested in either of those.] She grinned slightly.

[I can work with that.] Shizune replied.

Misha suddenly broke into a wide grin. [Mutou is suggesting he work with us!] she signed excitedly

Shizune blinked and then scratched her chin. As the boy started to approach the two of them, Misha turned to Shizune.

[He's pretty good looking, isn't he?] she asked.

[Yes.] Shizune responded. [He's rather...] She hestitated for a moment, then signed [Cute.]

**Earth 27 A few days after the death of Selene:**

Hanako knocked on the door of her boyfriend.

"Think he's home?" Hisao asked her.

"Should be." Hanako replied, "Now that school's over he's been spending most of his time working on this search engine he's developing."

"I find it interesting he's named 'Fitzroy.' Falsao stated.

"How come?" Lilly asked.

"Because its a name usually taken by illegitimate sons of kings." Falsao replied.

"Really?" Nate asked.

"Yes." Hanako replied, "his father was Anthony Shaw, his homeworld's Black King of the Hellfire club."

"Seriously?" Nate chuckled, "Gives him a lot of prestige, I would guess."

"Not really." Hanako stated, "He was disowned. Joined the XSE, which was the future version of the X-men, then fled for years after his future self started stalking him."

The door opened and Fitzroy looked at the five of them. He had pants that were slightly too big and a jacket that looks like he had hastily dressed.

"Oh, hey there." Trevor stated, "Sorry, I was in the shower. I take it your the parallel Hisao that's been running around Tokyo?"

"Yeah. You can call me Falsao," the sorcerer stated, "Did Hanako tell you what we were doing?"

"Collecting components to resurrect your Shizune." Trevor confirmed, "I'd like to help, but my body armor got toasted long ago and my powers only work if I have skin contact. Also, I'm trying to stay out of the limelight."

"Yes, well, you can help a different way." Hisao stated, "We need essence of the timestream, can you distill us some?"

Trevor gave Hisao a funny look, and then gave out a laugh.

"Hisao... it doesn't work that way. Here, come in, I'll get you some coffee or whatnot." He gave another chuckle.

"Coffee? At five in the afternoon?" Lilly asked.

"It's decaf." Trevor said and walked inside. The others followed. Hisao looked around his apartment, and to his suprise it seemed fairly normal. Knowing Trevor was from the future, he would assume it would look like something out of a 80's sci-fi movie, but instead is was rather simply furnished, with a computer on a desk on one side, a television on the other, and a couple couches in between. The only odd thing was that next to the door were several large cages with a dozen or so mice inside each.

They walked in and sat on the couches.

"You want coffee or soda or something?" Trevor asked, "Or should we just get down to business?"

"The latter, if you would." Falsao replied.

"Alright." Trevor plunked himself down on the couch next to Hanako, leaning over he planted a kiss on her check.

"Thanks cutie." she replied, Trevor nodded.

"No problem." Trevor replied, "Look, Hisao, I can see why you'd think I could get you essence of the timestream, but its not that simple. Trying to ask if I can distill it is kind of like asking if you can grow a computer in a garden."

"Oh." Hisao replied.

"How would we get some then?" Nate asked.

"Most people would say its impossible." Trevor stated.

"But you know differently?" Lilly asked.

Trevor nodded, "Few years back, I got stuck on a world full of magicians. Every person on the planet was into magic in some shape or form. I learned about a lot of weird stuff there. The innate mental powers everyone has the potential for, how magic usually works, what solid sound actually is..."

"What is it then?" Hisao asked.

"Focus, Hisao." Lilly stated.

"Look, there is a place you can get essence of the timestream, but its hard as hell to get to and a lot of people regard it as a myth. It's called the Panoptichron." Trevor stated.

"Wasn't that a type of building designed so that a warden can see every inmate interned inside?" Falsao asked.

"No, that's a panopticon. No H." Trevor stated, "The Panoptichron is supposedly a 'bubble' of sort in the heart of the multiverse where you can reach any reality imaginable. I don't know what exactly it looks like, and I can't even guarantee you'll get there."

"Isn't it just a matter of opening a portal?" Nate asked.

Trevor shook his head, "No, it isn't. Look, temporal navigation is tricky under the best of circumstances. You're navigating eleven dimensional space when our minds and bodies are built in three dimensions. I'll do what I can to deposit you where I think it'll be, but its quite likely you'll wind up on some hellhole of an alternate reality instead."

"I kinda thought that might happen." Hisao stated, and pulled an object out of his pocket. It was similar in size and shape to a pocket watch, but was covered in numerous dials. "So I got this."

"What is it?" Hanako asked.

"Its a recall devise. If you spend too much time away from your home timeline, this yanks you back there." Hisao stated.

"You built that?" Falsao asked.

"No, Forge left it in the Corp headquaters so I borrowed it." Hisao replied, "I'm not nearly skilled enough to wire something like this together."

Trevor sighed, "You're really set on doing this, aren't you?" he asked.

Falsao nodded.

Trevor shook his head, "Alright then. Let me warn you I have no idea what you might find where I send you. There's all sorts of freakish universes out there with zombies and vampires and stuff. So be careful, ok?"

"We will." Hanako said, "I promise."

"I'm holding you to that." Trevor said. Walking over to the mice cage, he lifted the latch and pulled out one of the animals. White energy drained from the mouse and it laid limp in his hand.

He gestured, and a brilliant white portal formed in the living room.

"In case this goes badly..." Trevor said. "Remember Hanako, I love you."

Hanako blushed, "Love you too."

Trevor watched as the five superhumans entered the portal. Falsao went first, then Nate, then Hanako, then Lilly. As Hisao was about to enter, he turned back.

"When I get home, remind me to ask you about this device I'm building. I'm going to need your programming expertise." Hisao stated, and then followed his four friends.


	9. 8: The Queen of Japan

Chapter 8: The Queen of Japan.

**Earth 31, then:**

[_My favorite thing about this school is that its on top of a mountain._] Shizune signed, looking up at the star-speckled expanse before her.

[_Because its that much closer to the sky?_] Hisao signed back.

[_Yes_.] Shizune responded, then furrowed her brow.

[_Something wrong?_] Hisao asked

[_Just thinking._] Shizune responded.

[_About?_] Hisao pressed

Shizune paused, then scratched her chin, then started signed out words slowly, [_A long time ago, a very long time ago, I once knew a girl who was, at that time, my only friend. Then one day she vanished for months, and then told me the next time I heard from her she couldn't be around me anymore. I wonder what happened to her and why she left me._]

Hisao paused and considered that for a minute. [_You seem like a rather lonely person._]

Shizune blinked. She hesitated for a moment, then looked down [_It does get that way sometimes. But I have Misha. And I have you._] she then paused again, [_So few people seem to get that I want people to be happy. To excel. Nobody in this school seems to have any drive._]

Hisao nodded, [_I want to ask you something._]

[_Yes?_} Shizune responded.

[_I know you're lonely, and I have been too for a very long time. But maybe, by being together, we won't have to be such anymore. So, will you be my girlfriend?_]

Shizune appeared dumbstuck by the question. Her face flushed and her hands fumbled. Then she looked at him for a very long moment.

[_Okay._]

**Earth 1191. Year, 2080**

Hisao walked through the portal to emerge into a dark landscape underneath a night sky. His four friends were looking around a gutted cityscape. Burned hulks of buildings lay around a rubble filled landscape.

tic tic tic tic tic tic.

"Is this the panoptichron?" Hanako asked.

Tic tic tic tic tic,

"I think your boyfriend screwed up." Nate stated.

Hanako winced

"We're on another Earth." Lilly stated, "The ground is speaking to me. We're about forty miles outside of Tokyo."

Tic tic tic tic tic.

"Great. So how long do we have to stay here before your device yanks us back?" Nate asked Hisao.

Tic tic tic tic tic

"I don't think its a set interval." Hisao stated, "The notes Forge left said it could take anywhere from a couple hours to a week depending on the kinds of tachyons present in the environment."

"Mentat, what is that sound?" Falsao asked.

Tic tic tic tic tic.

Hisao listened.

Tic tic tic tictictic tic tic.

"I think its coming from inside your pocket." Hanako stated.

Hisao reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Fuck." He stated.

"Uh... something wrong?" Nate asked

"My phone has a geiger counter." Hisao responded, tapping the screen, "This landscape is radioactive. Roughly the equivalent of Hiroshima shortly after the bombing."

The others exchanged worried looks, except Falsao who began mumbled something under his breath. Bolts of white light flew from his fingertips and hit the others.

"That should solve the problem." he stated.

Nate blinked, "One of your spells?" he asked

"Yes. My mentor developed a incantation that can prevent fallout from damaging the body." Falsao stated.

"Well, that helps now, but what about the fact I was already here for several minutes beforehand?" Nate snapped.

"The primary danger in the atomic blasts was the radiation released by the initial explosion." Hisao stated, "The residue radiation was second. A distant second. We'll probably be alright. "

"The spell should shield us for a while" Falsao stated, "But it'd be best if we tried to reach a less damaging area. I can't maintain it forever."

Nate gave a disgusted look, "When we get home remind me to punch that Trevor idiot in the face."

"X-man, come on." Hanako stated, "He did his best."

"Yeah, and I might get cancer because of it." Nate replied, "Considering that unlike you three, I don't have a healing factor, I think my being pissed is justified."

"Can we save this for later?" Lilly asked, "We need to get moving."

"Right." Hisao stated, "Lilly-"

"Call me Sovereign when we're on mission, sweetie." Lilly interrupted.

"Right, sorry." Hisao stated, "Can your psychometery tell us if there's a less dangerous area nearby?"

Lilly mentally reached out and felt the surrounding area. "I'm sensing a clear area to the northeast of hear, where Tokyo is. Or was, as the case may be."

"Great, lets get moving." Falsao stated and started walking off, "I'd teleport, but I can't jump blind into an area I don't have a general idea of the layout of. We might end up inside a wall or something."

The five of them started walking and as they climbed over rubble they took notice that there was not a single tree, or leaf, or blade of grass, or animal, anywhere around.

"What do you think happened here?" Hanako asked.

"A nuclear war. Duh." Nate replied.

"Well, uh, that much was obvious, I mean why, and how, and..." her voice trailed off. "I knew there were worlds like this but I never wanted to see one..." she said softly.

"Honestly, its not terribly surprising." Hisao replied, "There were numerous points in the cold war where a single change in how things happened would have caused it to turn hot. The cuban missile crisis is the best known, but there were tons of others. At one point all of NORAD's phone lines and radar sites connections were run through a single relay station in Colorado. One day, a motor overheated and shut down every possible line of communication between the nuclear bombers and the people who had to constantly tell them not to kill everyone."

There was a dead silence for a moment.

"Do I want to ask why we didn't all die then?" Nate asked.

"A bomber was in the air when it happened and was flying past a radar site. He noticed a distinct lack of smoking ruins and reported it in time to get everyone to calm down." Hisao replied.

[Author's note: Yes, that actually happened. Look up cracked's 6 tiny mistakes that almost ended the world]

"You can be very snarky when you're stressed." Hanako stated.

"Yeah, well, this world went to hell in a handbasket." Hisao replied, "Apparently recently. I'm guessing we're sometime in the 1970s based on the architecture and how strong the radiation is."

"We're not." Lilly replied, "The information I'm getting says we're in the future. Twenty-eighty to be precise."

Hisao blinked and considered that for a moment. "Great, an alternate future dystopian reality. Don't superheroes have enough of those?"

"Are there a lot?" Nate asked.

Hisao stopped walking for a moment, "Lets see, theres the Days of Future Past, The Dystopia ruled by the Maestro, Kang inciting a nuclear war, Purple man becoming the president, Sersi going insane and destroying most of humanity, the Age of Apocalypse, War of the Worlds, Star Brand becoming dictator, 2099, Hyperstorm's homeworld, Atlanterra, whats left of the Squadron Supreme's homeworld, the one Havok was sent to when he was in a coma, Invisible woman leading HYDRA and killing most of humanity, the zombieverse, the Guardians of the Galaxy, Lady Deadpool's homeworld, Thor's Reigning, Captain america and the avengers becoming vampires, the omnipotent pharaoh Akheaten, Forever Yesterday, Earth Askani, Doc Doom ruling the globe, the Skrull empire conquering Earth, the shadow mob, Chronok murdering everyone, Meteor storm ravaging the western hemisphere, Superhero werewolves, Deathlok's future, Charnal's future, Galactus eating the earth, Adam II ruling the planet, Iron Man 2020, the Vi-lock earth, Sunspot becoming dictator, Nth man's homeworld, Set coming to earth, the Magus's timeline, Avengers galactic battalion conquering the universe, Nazi Doom's timeline, Chronomancer's kingdom, The New Sun, Team X, Earth X, Sublime-infested beast destroying everyone, President-for-Life Tony Stark, Limbo invading Earth, Ultravision, and a bunch of varients of the Days of Future Past, including Fitzroys homeworld. And those are just the ones the X-men know about."

[Author's note: These actually all exist in marvel comics. Bonus points if you can name all the issues they appeared in without looking at the wiki.]

"You lost me at "Maestro." Nate stated.

"Did you say 'Age of Apocalypse'?" Hanako asked.

Hisao nodded, "While back, Xavier's schizophenic son Legion went back in time to try and kill Magneto. Xavier wound up giving his life for the guy. The resulting change in the timeline resulted in a reality where Apocalypse ruled North America and baseline humans were exterminated by clones of the multiple man. Only person who knew what was going on was Bishop and he corralled the remnants of the X-men to go back in time and stop Legion. No survivors, far as we know." he shook his head.

Hanako bit her lip, but nodded.

"Anyway, lets get going." Hisao stated.

**Five hours later.**

"Fuck I'm hungry." Nate stated.

"Yes, X-man, I know." Falsao responded, "I think we all are."

"I'm actually not, interestingly enough." Hanako stated.

"Neither am I." Hisao remarked and turned to Lilly "Are you?"

Lilly shook her head. "Not really. I could eat, but I don't feel like I need too."

"Healing factor?" Falsao asked.

"Probably." Hisao replied, "Don't know why else I wouldn't be hungry considering we missed breakfast." he glanced at the sunrise in the east. "We should be reaching the safe zone shortly. Hopefully we can find some stuff to scavenge there."

"Hopefully the city will still be standing and we can get to a restaurant." Nate remarked.

"I highly doubt it." Hisao replied, "Considering we haven't passed a single building that wasn't a gutted hulk, I think...what the..."

The quintet reached the top of a peak. Off in the distance by a couple dozen miles was a very large semi-translucent bubble that spanned the horizon. Hazy images of buildings could be seen flickering through the film.

"What the hell." Nate remarked.

Falsao looked at Hisao, "Do you have any idea what that might be?"

Hisao stared and blinked at the surreal site. "A forcefield, maybe? Or a pocket reality? I'm not sure. I was hoping you knew."

Falsao shook his head, "Its beyond my area of expertise."

"Does it change anything?" Nate asked irritably.

"Not really." Hanako replied.

**Seven more hours later.**

The five metahumans walked up to the bubble.

"I feel like I'm going to pass out." Nate remarked.

"Lilly, can you analyze this? Tell me if its dangerous?" Hisao asked

Lilly scanned the bubble. "Its not giving me anything."

"Doesn't matter. I'm going in." Nate stated.

"And if it kills you upon touching it?" Falsao asked.

"Then at least I won't be hungry." Nate replied and walked into the bubble. There was a "Schloop" sound and his form could be faintly seen through the film.

"Guess that works." Hanako stated and walked inside. The other three followed.

The moment the entered, they were struck dumb by how normal it was. In complete contrast to the rubble filled wasteland they had just been in, Tokyo appeared entirely intact. The buildings were significantly taller than the five were used to, but other than that it appeared almost exactly like the Toyko they called home. There were surprisingly few people on the streets, only a handful could be seen walking around.

On their entrance however, one man standing a couple meters distant immediately took notice and started staring. Then he began walking towards them.

"Excuse me!" Nate called out, "Can we get some food?"

"You... you..." the man stated "Lady Satou? But your eyes..."

"You know me?" Lilly replied incredulously.

"Yes, she's blind." Hisao stated, slightly annoyed, "It's not her only feature. Show some respect."

The man whirled around and stared at Hisao, dumbstruck, then he noticed Falsao, and then Hanako.

"How... how is this possible?" he stated, "By Xavier, how in the world..."

"What, that we walked in from a radioactive wasteland?" Nate replied. "Magic, mainly, ask him" he pointed to Falsao.

"Hisao? TWO Hisaos? And Hanako?" the man asked.

Hanako blinked. "Ok, how do you know us? Really?

"It IS you?" The man asked, "Not a cosplay group? Not impersonators?"

Hisao sighed, "If it helps, we're from alternate realities. Yes, I'm Hisao Nakai, he's also Hisao Nakai. This is Hanako Ikezawa and thats Lilly Satou. This here is Nate Grey. We're from another planet and we'd like lodging and food until we can go home."

"Alternate..." the man stated, and his eyes lit up with understanding, "My god! That explains it! Name's Kichiro. My word, I never thought I'd actually be able to meet you."

"I take it we're significant on this reality?" Lilly asked.

Kichiro chuckled, "You have no idea. Here, come with me. Its better shown than explained."

He started walking down the road and motioned for the others to follow. They looked at each other, then shrugged and followed.

"Why are there so few people on the streets?" Hanako asked

"Teleportation." Kichiro responded, "Personal teleport pads were invented a number of years ago, and now they're next to every home and buisness. Very few people walk to get anywhere, I only do it because I enjoy exercising."

They rounded the corner and on the side of the street was a glass enclosure similar to a phone booth. A blue circle of energy was on the floor and next to it was a pedestal with a keypad. Attached to the pedistal by an adamanteum chain was a massive book. Kichiro picked it up and started flipped through the pages.

"M. M.. Mem... memor..." he stated, "Ah, here we go. Memorial garden. 505-677-889-444-432. he put his hand on the keypad and began typing the numbers in.

"Stand on the circle." he stated, and the others did so. He pushed the "enter" button. There was a flickering and the six were suddenly teleported to a garden, just outside another enclosure similar to the one they just left.

The garden was rather expansive and held numerous trees and flowers. Beyond the grassy area, in the distance be seen long stretches of wheat. There were a great deal of people in the garden, many having picnics, with numerous kids running around playing games.

Kichiro motioned off to a distance to what appeared to be a series of statues. As Hisao and the others approached, they realized exactly what the figures were of.

In the center, was a statue of Hisao. His was putting one of his arms over a statue of Kenji and the other of one of Hanako. To one side, Rin was depicted painting with her foot, though she had what appeared to be mechanic arms. Emi was seen looked over her shoulder. On the other side, Shizune and Misha were playing chess, with Shizune having significantly more pieces on her side. In front of the statues was a plaque. On it was written:

**IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES SO THAT ALL OTHERS MIGHT SEE ANOTHER DAY**

**HISAO NAKAI "MENTAT"**

**HANAKO IKEZAWA "SURVIVOR"**

**KENJI SETOU "DATA"**

**RIN TEZUKA "WARP"**

**EMI IBARAZAKI "CHANNELER"**

**SHIZUNE HAKAMICHI "VOIDSTAR"**

**SHIINA "MISHA" HAKAMICHI "HARDHEAD"**

**THEIR SACRIFICE SHALL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.**

There was a stunned silence as the five of them looked over the statue, then Hisao noticed that, off to the side several meters distant was a familiar head of blonde hair facing the statue as well.

"Are... you... Lilly?" he asked softly, walking towards the figure.

"Yes." she said, "And its very good to hear your voice again. Even if its only briefly."

"Lady Satou?" Kichiro asked, awestruck.

"Please leave us." Lady Satou stated, "I would like some time with my friends."

"Yes, your majesty." Kichiro stated and hustled off.

"Your majesty?" Hanako asked, "I never figured you for the ruling type."

"It wasn't my intention." Lady Satou responded, "But everyone wanted me to step up after the war, and I had nothing else to live for."

Nate looked at Lilly, "Kind of funny you chose Sovereign as your code name then."

Lilly shook her head, "It wasn't what I meant at all, X-man."

"You can call him Nate." Lady Satou stated, still facing away from the others, "He was my friend too, briefly. You were all very good friends." she let out a sad chuckle. "God I've missed you all so much..."

"You sound like you've been expecting us." Falsao stated.

"One of my advisers is a precog." Lady Satou replied, "She let me know you were coming and where you'd be. We call her Blindfold, after the X-women of old. Many of us take our names after those who came before us. Our way of honoring those who lost their lives."

Hisao looked at Lilly, then at Lady Satou, then back at Lilly, then back at Lady Satou. "What...exactly happened..." he stated softly.

Lady Satou sighed, "Its a very long story involving the near-annihilation of the mutant race, its rebirth, and its near-total destruction again. Suffice to say that during the early twenty-first century the United States essentially declared war on Mutantkind and attempted to exterminate the species. They mass produced sentinels and send any possible mutant to concentration camps."

"The days of future past." Hisao mumbled.

"Essentially." Lady Satou stated. "The eight of us, the Yamaku Eight, as we called ourselves, had become accomplished superheros by that point, so we did what we could to help stop the genocide."

"We were superheroes? All of us?" Hisao asked.

Lady Satou nodded, "Once the Godstone broke, Shizune and Misha joined up immediantly. Hanako joined a bit later, then Hisao became tech support. I joined a few weeks after that, calling myself "Sidhe" which is the term for fairies in Ireland. Kenji was allowed to join a bit after that, the Emi decided to. Rin was the last, but she eventually did it as well. We became Japan's premier superhero team."

Hisao blinked. "Never would have expected that."

"There were others we worked with." Lady Satou said, "Logan, Betsy, Nate, This other Kenji who had no relation to Setou. But when everything went to pot in America, they left to try and help things there. We stayed back for the most part, trying to keep things under control here because Japan was going through horrible times as well."

"What do you mean?" Falsao asked

"During the early twenty first century Japan was undergoing a large number of severe natural disasters." Lady Satou stated, "Earthquakes and Volcanos, mainly. It was all the eight of us could do to provide disaster relief. But it didn't make a difference."

"The sentinals came here and killed us, didn't they?" Hanako asked.

Lady Satou shook her head, still facing away, "Japan wouldn't stand for that. But in 2066, America stated that any country that provided shelter to mutants would suffer a nuclear holocaust." She sighed, "The end of the world seemed nigh."

"We died in the blast?" Hisao asked.

"No..." Lady Satou gave a sad chuckle, "It was Kenji of all people who came up with the idea, you know. He was nuts, but he saved milllions... No. Kenji developed a way to manipulate the Godstone energy within our bodies. To take it out and use to to project a force field that would stop any attack or radiation."

"Sounds dangerous." Falsao stated

"It was, but what else could we do?" Lady Satou asked, "Sure we could survive a nuclear blast, but we were eight people compared to a country with hundreds of millions..." she lowered her head, "We had exactly enough energy to cover one city. We chose Tokyo, because with twenty five million people, it had the largest population, not to mention the culture."

She fidgeted slightly, "We sat in a circle, while the device Kenji and Hisao had built and Hanako had programmed tore our energy out and used it. But... I was the only one who survived the strain."

"So..." Hisao said, "You've been alone..."

"For fourteen years." Lady Satou stated, "But it worked. Saved twenty five million people. That makes it worth it. Its what superheroes do, after all, give up their lives for others..." She lowered her head, then slowly turned toward the group. "But I can't cry anymore."

As she turned to face the group, the others immediately realized why she had been facing away. In her skull's eyesockets were not the cloudy, milky white eyes Hisao had seen every day for years, but two bright red bionic eyes.

"Lilly..." Hisao mumbled.

"With my Hisao dead, I couldn't see through his eyes anymore." Lady Satou stated, "And I missed it, dear lord I missed it. So I eventually had Forge build me these. I can see now, but... I can't cry either. And I often wish I could."

"What happened in America after?" Nate asked.

Lady Satou gave a grim smile, "The people eventually got fed up with the government, launched a rebellion and ended the nightmare that had been going on for half a century. To ensure it never happens again, mutants now police themselves, in the organization known as Xavier's Security Enforces. Or the X.S.E."

Hanako blinked, "The X.S.E.? This is Fitzroys world!"

Lady Satou paused, "You know Trevor?"

Hanako nodded, "He's my boyfriend. I wound up killing that psycho that was stalking him for years."

Lady Satou blinked, and then nodded, "Well thats good. I tutored him while he was on an exchange program here. Promising young man, brilliant programmer. Its good to hear he's doing well."

Hisao looked at Lilly, then at Lady Satou. Then he walked up and gave Lady Satou the biggest hug he could manager.

"I'm so sorry." He said softly

"Its just..." Lady Satou stated, lowering her head into his arm, "I'm alone. I've been alone for so long. I wish to god I had died as well. I've contemplated suicide, but where would that leave Tokyo? I can't abandon my city..."

Tears trickled in Hisao's eyes, "I'll come back and visit. We all will."

"Will you?" Lady Satou asked, her voice cracking, "I don't know how much longer I can go on..."

"I promise." Hisao stated, "If this is Fitzroy's homeworld, it should be easy for him to find it again, right?"

"Yeah, it will. I've heard he's been actually visiting on occasion." Hanako replied.

Hisao kissed Lady Satou on her head, "I know what its like to be all alone. Nobody deserves that, especially not you."

Lilly walked up and hugged her counterpart as well. "I'll try to bring the others too." she said softly.

Hanako and Falsao walked up and joined in the group up.

"Pile up on the queen." Falsao joked. Hanako chuckled slightly.

"Thank you." Lady Satou said, "Thank you all. You have no idea how much this means to me."

As they released their grip, Lady Satou nodded, "You'll probably be leaving soon. I think Blindfold said your trip is going to be over in-"

There was a jerking sensation, and the five metahumans vanished.


	10. 9: Disenchantment

Chapter 9: Disenchantment

**Earth 31, then:**

Hisao walked onto the roof. A familiar pink haired girl was sitting by the fence, staring off in the distance.

"Misha, what exactly is going on?" He asked, "Shizune won't give me a straight answer, and after...last night..."

Misha sighed and shook her head, "It's complicated."

Hisao shook his head, "I don't care how complicated it is. You're my friend, and something's clearly been eating you alive for weeks now."

Misha looked down at the ground past the fence, "I don't really want to talk about it."

Hisao sighed. "I can't force you to tell me whats going on, but I really wish you'd let me help. Whatevers going on, it must be really bad for you to try and seduce me like..." he shook his head again.

Misha turned around and looked at Hisao sadly, "You want to help?" she paused and began thinking about what she was going to say. "Its... Shicchan. I... I..." She swallowed and looked down. "I want her to be happy but..."

"But what?" Hisao asked

A tear formed in Misha's eye, "I know what you're probably thinking right now. I tried to get you to cheat on my best friend. You probably hate me for that and I can't say I blame you..."

"Misha, why would I ever hate you?" Hisao asked, "I mean, yes, what you did was over the line, but... it was just a stupid impulse. I'm sure you had those before, I'm sure Shizune has had those before, I certainly have had those before. Like trying to talk to Kenji when he's off his medication."

"Stupid impulse?" Misha responded, "It wasn't that."

"What was it then?" Hisao asked.

"I... I don't know what it was." Misha began sobbing. "I somehow... I don't know... I somehow thought it would be a good idea to break the two of you apart... I don't even know why I thought that. I'm such a failure."

Hisao blinked and his lip twitched, "Why did you want to do that?" he asked softly.

"Because..." Misha let out a choked sob, "Because I love her too..."

Hisao paused. "Oh." he simply stated.

"I mess up. I always mess up." Misha cried, "My mom's dead, my dad's abusive, I came to this school to avoid the bullying at my last one, I keep failing my classes, I'm terrible at making friends, and now I stab my only two friends in the back out of some stupid feeling of... I don't know what... I can't do ANYTHING right."

Hisao paused and sat down next to Misha, then put his arm around her.

"I just want her to be happy with me." Misha stated, "And I know how petty it is to wish that, but... God, you must hate me so much right now..."

"Its alright." Hisao stated, "Don't worry about it."

"It's just... It's just..." Misha stated.

"This isn't the first time something like this has happened." Hisao replied.

"R...really?" Misha asked

Hisao sighed. "My first heart attack...I told you it triggered when my last girlfriend and I tried to have sex. What I didn't tell you is that just a week prior one of my other "friends" date raped me."

At that, Misha immediate stopped sobbing and looked agast at Hisao in shock. "What?" she asked

Hisao nodded, "I had been with Iwanako three weeks. Then, one day, this girl I knew called Keiko approached me and started hitting on me. I told her to stop, because I would never cheat but..." he sighed, "she drugged me."

Misha's lip trembled.

"She turned out to be a mutant." Hisao stated, "With mind control pheromones. And she took me back to her place and forced me to..." he shook his head in anger. "Then she told me it was extremely disappointing and told me to get out of her life." He clenched his hand into a fist.

"Did the police..." Misha began, but Hisao shook his head.

"I didn't tell them. I told exactly one person." he replied, "Iwanako." he looked down and sighed. "And she told her brother, Kenta. And he..." he sighed, "He had always hated mutants. I admit I had wanted Keiko dead, but I didn't think anyone would actually _do_ it."

Misha stared at Hisao, speechless.

"He got a hold of some power-inducing drug, got telekinesis, then tore her limbs off." Hisao sighed, "Police caught him, but he was acquitted due to anti-mutant sentiment..." Hisao paused, "Got away with murder." He sighed, "It was after that I lost faith in the judicial system."

"I'm...sorry..." Misha said softly.

"Superpowers let you do whatever the hell you want." Hisao stated, "But to respond to your statement, Misha, I don't hate you. You made a mistake, but you regret it and are willing to learn from it and move on. That matters more to me."

Misha paused, then nodded. Standing up, she walked closer to the fence and stared off in the distance. "What will Shicchan think?" she asked

Hisao shrugged, "I know something you don't want her to learn, and now you know something I really don't like talking about. If you can keep my secret, I can keep yours."

Misha turned around and nodded. "I'll take it to my grave." her voice more serious than Hisao had ever heard her speak.

"And so will I" he replied.

**Earth 27: Now.**

Theteam immedianly emerged back into Fitzroy's apartment. Turning around he looked at the five and grinned.

"How'd it go?" he asked

"Terrible." Nate responded, "I've got cancer."

"Nate, you don't know that." Lilly stated, "We were only exposed to the radiation for a few minutes."

Trevor winced, "A warhead reality?"

"Pardon?" Falsao asked

"I classify universes based on dominate features." Trevor responded, "Worlds that have suffered a nuclear war I refer to as warhead realities." He gave a guilty look, "I'm sorry if I...well..."

"You screwed up." Nate stated.

"Nate, cut it out." Hanako responded, "Trevor did the best he could."

"Can you find that reality again?" Hisao asked.

Trevor paused, "Yes, but why would you want to go back?"

"Same reason you probably do." Falsao responded, "People who got left behind."

Trevor paused, contemplating that statement.

"What my counterpart means..." Hisao begin, "Is that on that world we wound up meeting a very lonely version of my girlfriend here, and we said we'd go back on occasion to visit her."

Trevor glanced at Lilly, "A parallel Lilly, huh?"

"She said she knew you." Hanako responded.

Trevor paused, "I don't remember."

"Rules Tokyo?" Hanako suggested, "Exchange program?"

"Extraordinarily good looking?" Hisao added

"Oh Hisao..." Lilly remarked, chuckling slightly

A look of realization spread across Trevors face. "Wait, Lady Satou is Lilly?"

"Didn't the bright red bionic eyes give you a clue?" Nate asked, "Not to mention I don't think there's a single other girl in Japan with that kind of hair."

Trevor scratched his chin, "I can be spectacularly thick at times, apparently. Though to be fair, it was seven years ago." He shook his head.

"Your programming skill apparently impressed her." Falsao stated.

Trevor shrugged, "I've just got a knack."

"Speaking of which..." Hisao remarked and fished in his pockets, pulling out a rolled up sheet of paper. "I want you to look at this and tell me if you and the club you're in could help me program it."

Trevor unrolled the paper and looked it over. "Hmmm, biological sensors, semi-intellegent relay, artifical...Hmm.." he glanced over at Hanako, "Come take a look at this."

Hanako leaned over his shoulder, then back at Hisao, "Is this what I think it is?"

Hisao blushed, "Yeah, it is. I got the idea a while back from this article Emi showed me..."

Hanako chuckled, "You really go out of your way to help the people you care about, don't you?"

"I try." Hisao responded, "Do you think it's doable?"

Trevor paused, "It might take a few months, but yeah. I think we could swing this. I'm more concerned about her response to the idea though. She's not really the kind of person to ask for help with...this kind of thing."

"What exactly are you guys talking about?" Nate stated irritably.

Hisao looked at Nate, "I'd rather not say in case it doesn't turn out the way we expect."

"Give me a break." Nate responded, "Do you really think I'll be-"

"Nate." Lilly stated, "Leave it be."

Nate turned back to Lilly, "What do you think they're talking about?"

Lilly chuckled, "Well, lets just say Hisao originally had the idea for me, but I told him I didn't need it." she shrugged.

Nate gave Lilly an annoyed look, "Again with the enigmatic shit..."

"I'll tell you once we find out for sure whether it'll happen." Hisao stated.

Nate rolled his eyes.

"Would you like me to try opening another portal?" Trevor asked.

"Get me something to eat first." Nate responded, "I haven't gotten any food in something like half a day."

Trevor paused, "But you only left five minutes ago."

"Yes, but from our perspective it was about twelve hours." Hanako responded, "Didn't you tell me your powers could cause a form of time dilation between worlds?"

"Yeah, okay." Trevor responded. "Right."

"Time dilation-" Hisao began

"Isn't the right term." Falsao finished.

Hisao and Falsao looked at each other and chuckled. "Jinx." Hisao joked, then turned to Fitzroy. "Time dilation is a feature of relativity that causes time to move faster or slower based on the mass of the object you are standing on. I think what you mean is that the starting point of your portals on one world is viewed differently than the ending point on another."

"Whatever." Trevor shrugged, "I'm a programmer, not a physicist. Anyway, go ahead and get whatever food you'd like. I'll see if I can do some chronal analysis and get you closer to the Panoptichron."


	11. 10: The Age of Apocalypse

Chapter 10: The Age of Apocalypse.

**Earth 31, then:**

**[**We should take a photo of the three of us.] Shizune signed, then snapped her fingers, [We haven't taken a student council photo yet, nows the perfect time]

Hisao looked at Shizune and shrugged, "Yeah, Misha, go find Yuuko."

Misha grinned and ran off.

A few minutes later, she returned, dragging a very embarrassed Yuuko behind her.

[Allright. On the count of three, we all pose like a musketeer.] Shizune stated, grinning slighlty. Then she suddenly jerked her head. Off in the distance, in a crowd of people, was a woman.

She was in her mid-twenties, had bright yellow hair and was staring at the four of them, Shizune in particular. She was dressed in a large brown trench coat, with her hands tucked inside her sleeves.

[Hisao...] Shizune signed, [Do you know who that is?]

Hisao glanced at the lady, [No idea. Maybe one of Lilly's relatives?]

[Maybe.] Shizune stated [She looks familiar, whatever the case. Anyway, lets do a photo.]

She struck a pose, Misha and Hisao followed suit.

The Camera flashed..

Shizune turned to Misha [Misha, tell Yuuko we'd like the photo digitally as well. Also, we'd like it in 12x9, 8x5, and poster size.]

Misha translated and Hisao glanced back at the women.

She took her hands out of her coat sleeve and scratched her head.

And as she did so, Hisao noticed her left arm was covered in bright silvery metal.

**Earth 295, year: 1995:**

The five metahumans emerged out of another portal, into a grassy landscape.

"Well, I don't think this is the Panoptichron either." Nate responded irritably, "Your boyfriend screwed up again."

"Do you really think you could have done any better?" Hanako responded.

"Ok, so where are we, when are we, and wheres a good place to keep shelter?" Falsao asked

"Earth two hundred ninty five," Lilly replied, "The year is nineteen ninety five, and we're just a couple miles outside of the Xavier institute."

"Sounds like a logical place to head." Hisao replied.

"Is there any radiation here?" Nate asked, "Or toxins? Or nanobots or whatever?"

"No radiation." Hisao remarked, pulling out his phone, "Can't speak for toxins, but considering there's grass and whatnot around I think this place is relatively safe."

"Lets head out then." Falsao stated

The five of them started walking towards the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning.

"So, whats with the black box?" Nate asked after a few minutes.

Falsao shifted uncomfortably in place.

"X-man." Hisao stated, slightly exasperated.

"No, its ok." Falsao stated. "I had a black box created because there are certain events in my past that I do my best to make sure nobody knows about."

"Like what?" Nate asked.

Falsao glared at Nate, then sighed. "Take what Hisao would consider his worst nightmare come to life. Thats one of them."

"So, heart attack?" Nate asked.

"Much, much worse." Falsao responded.

Nate scratched his chin. "Hm."

"Its nothing that will endanger us. I can assure you of that." Falsao responded.

"Who made it?" Hisao asked.

Falsoa shrugged, "My mentor."

"Mutou?" Hanako asked.

"No, my mystical mentor." Falsao responded.

"Dr strange?" Lilly asked

"No, ever heard of Illyana Rasputin?" Falsao asked

Hisao paused, "Magik? Wasn't she the girl some sorcerer kidnapped and turned into a girl who wouldn't be out of place in a Madoka fanfic?"

"Never heard of Madoka, but she was kidnapped, yes." Falsao responded, "Trained in magic, destined to end the world, eventually got powerful enough she kicked out the sorcerer who trained her, took over his home dimension, and then worked every day of her life to defeat destiny." He gave a small smile, "She taught me everything I knew."

"So, you know black magic?" Hanako asked.

"Some, but I prefer white." Falsao replied, "Illyana knows both, and white magic is a much better fit with me than the dark stuff."

"Is that how you got that scar?" Nate asked.

"_Nate!_" Hanako said, aghast.

Falsao blinked, "Ah, right. That thing. I keep forgetting I have that, honestly. Yeah, training session with one of Illyana's demons went out of control. No biggy."

"You don't see it as a big deal?" Hanako asked.

Falsao shook his head, "Nah, its just a scratch. I'm still the same person on the inside as I was before, after all." He grinned.

Hanako glanced at Hisao, who shrugged.

"So, whats Illyana like as a person?" Lilly asked.

Falsao thought for a minute. "She's a very complicated person. She appears very sarcastic and can be kind of an ass at times, but deep down she truly cares about everyone and wants to help them. She never forgets a debt owed or given, and she will go through hell, both literally and metaphorically, to help the people she cares about."

"Sounds like you've got the hots for her." Nate responded.

Falsao shot him an annoyed glance, "If you're implying what I think you are, bear in mind she's a lesbian."

"Really?" Hanako asked.

"Yeah." Falsao stated, "Never had a relationship with a guy, they don't interest her. But girls drive her nuts, especially ones who have a blend of compassion and independence. She rarely lets on though. She's been wanting to get with Kitty Pryde for the better part of ten years now but hasn't ever told her."

"Isn't Kitty with Colossus?" Hisao asked.

"Yeah. Illyana would never screw with an already existing relationship." Falsao responded, "Hence why Pryde's completely in the dark. I suspect she might have had another crush on my girlfriend, but I don't know for sure."

Off in the distance, the Xavier institute appeared, but as they approached, they realized something was wrong. The mansion looked practically destroyed, as if a massive battle had raged through its walls.

"Ok, so are the X-men dead or did the Institute just get trashed by a supervillian for the thirtieth time?" Hisao asked sarcastically.

"Not sure." Lilly replied. "But-"

BLINK

Roughly a dozen people suddenly appeared in a pink teleportation circle.

Most of them Hisao recognized as X-men mainstays. Colossus, Rouge, Quicksilver, Iceman, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Bishop, Jubilee, as well as a version of shadowcat dressed in a black leather outfit with claws attached to her gloves. There were a couple oddballs as well. In colossus arms was cradled a young blonde haired girl roughly six or seven years of age, and there was a bright pink girl in a green leotard with a quiver of stone javelins on her back. Next to her was an elderly woman Hisao recognized from the files as the precognitive Destiny. And then there was the last one.

Hanako.

But this wasn't the Hanako Hisao knew. The right side of her body was covered in burn scars, much as Hisao had seen when he first knew her, but they were completely exposed. Rather than wearing a an outfit that covered them, as Hisao had known her to do, she was dressed in a sleeveless tank top and a short black miniskirt. Her hair, rather than being combed into bangs on the right side of her face, was cut short, almost to a crew cut.

The other Hanako separated from the group, walked up to Hisao and gave a big grin, then surprised him with a kiss on the cheek.

"Didn't expect me, did you?" She remarked

"Ah..." Hisao stated, at a complete loss for words.

"Hanako...?" Lilly asked

The Hanako Hisao knew blushed furiously

"Wait, am I missing something?" Nate asked, "Is this butch girl with minimal inhibitions really a counterpart of..."

"Yep." the other Hanako said, "You can call me Omega to differentiate me, but yeah." she glanced back at her team of X-men who were talking amongst yourself, then back at the five others. "Good to see you all, and you couldn't have picked a better time."

Hisao glanced at Hanako, then at Omega, then shook his head. "How..." he said, his voice trailing off.

"How did I turn out so different?" Omega asked, "Well, lets just say spending five years as Apocalypse's horsemen, then breaking out by sheer willpower to find the Japanese had been exterminated to the last changed me."

There was a look of shock on the five on Hisao's team.

Omega shrugged, 'This is the Age of Apocalypse. Least, that's what a lot of people call it. Poccy nuked Japan out of existance a few years back because we scared the living crap out of him." She grinned, "Kind of flattering in a way, we made him wet his pants so bad he wouldn't even wipe us out in person, like he did to most of the other countries he destroyed." She pointed at Lilly, "Think you were probably the scariest considering you triggered a magnitude nine earthquake in downtown Hiroshima without even realizing it."

"Japans gone?" Lilly asked, "For real?"

"Yeah." Hanako replied, "Japans gone, South America's gone, Africa is pretty much cinders, Central America's under the ocean, Australia's been ravaged, and the shadow king took out Avalon just a few hours ago. All thats left is North America and parts of Eurasia."

The others look at Omega in shock.

"Don't worry," she said grinning, "We're about to fix it."

"How are you supposed to fix..." Hisao begin

"Time travel." Omega replied and motioned to her team, "That girl in Colossus's arms is probably the last temporal variant mutant on the planet. That black bald guy is Bishop, the only survivor of how the timeline is supposed to be. We're gonna send him back in time and save Chuck's life." She gave a firm nod, then glanced at Hisao, "You don't seem too surprised by this."

"This was in a file I read." Hisao replied, "Legion going back in time to kill Magneto and murdering Xavier instead, resulting in... all this."

"A file? So this is history to you? Great!" Omega grinned, "Got any info that might help?"

Hisao shook his head, "Not really, details were rather sparse considering they came entirely from Bishops memories."

"Pity." Omega stated, "No matter, fact is, we could use your help."

"If that girl is a time traveler," Nate stated, "Why haven't you already sent Bishop back?"

"Mutations don't kick in until puberty..." Hanako responded, her voice extremely soft.

"Yeah, thats the rub." Omega replied, "To fix it, we needed a shard of the M'kraan crystal so that Illyana's abilities could start, as well as a precog to help her pick out the right path. Hence, Destiny over there."

"Thats Illyana Rasputin?" Falsao asked.

"Yep. Colossus's sister, time traveler, last best hope, the works." Omega replied "Cost an entire team of junior X-men to extract her. Well worth the price though."

"Whats a M'kraan crystal?" Lilly asked.

"Giant rock that exists on a planet so far away from everything else that you see galaxies in the sky instead of stars. Also is in danger of wiping out our entire universe if we don't fix this shit up." Omega shrugged. "Anyway, fact is, Guido stabbed us all the back and jacked the shard we had, along with Maggie's son. We were about to head out to get them back but Destiny informed us you guys were about to appear and I figured we could use the extra firepower."

Hisao glanced at Hanako, who seemed extremely nervous around her counterpart. "Where exactly are they being held?"

Omega winced at the question. "Not gonna lie, they're in Poccy's cathedral. We're gonna have to fight a bazillion soldiers just to get in, and might have to tackle the big guy himself."

Hanako's face paled.

Omege looked at Hanako and sighed, "Judging by her reactions, I take it the same shit happened to her that happened to me, but we need everybody we can. There's an entire universe in danger of being destroyed."

"I really don't think its a good idea." Lilly stated.

"Would it help if I said please?" Omega asked

Hisao shook his head.

Falsao fidgeted uncomfortably, as if there was something he felt he should say.

"Are you guys superheros or not?" Omega asked.

"I'm a technician." Hisao replied, "I'm not a superhero. I built stuff, not-"

"Its fine." Hanako said.

Hisao and Lilly looked at her. Falsao gave a pleasantly surprised smile.

"Seriously?" Nate asked.

Hanako nodded, "I'm in the X-men. I'm going to have to face him sooner or later. I need to overcome my fears." she looked at the crowd of X-men, "At least this way we've got a lot of people on our side."

Omega grinned. "Glad to hear it." she turned back to her team and called out, "Good news guys! They're game!"

"You sure about this?" Lilly asked

Hanako nodded, "I'm not going to let him hurt anyone else."

"Come on. I'll introduce you to the group." Omega said and started walking towards her team.

The others followed, at their approach, the other x-men looked at Omega.

"Are you sure we can trust these people?" Quicksilver asked.

"Swear to god." Omega replied, "Don't worry, I knew them all personally, cept that guy with the flashing eye. Whats your name?"

"X-man." Nate replied, "Or Nate Grey."

"Any relation to Jean Grey?" Rouge asked.

"Why does everyone ask me that? Seriously?" Nate replied, "Its getting really, really, old." he shook his head in annoyance.

"Don't mind him. He's always this way." Falsao stated.

"Anyway." Rouge stated, "Now that we hav' entertained your stopover Omega, Blink, take us where we were planning on goin originally."

"Right then." The pink girl stated, "Next stop, Apocalypses front door."

BLINK

The scene changed to what appeared to be the interior of the cathedral, but it was wrecked, as if a series of bombs had gone off. Even stranger, it seemed to be deserted.

"Didn't you say this place would be heavily guarded?" Jubilee asked

"When I was here last, Poccy had a dozen guards stationed in every room." Omega replied. "I have no idea where they might be."

"I think I know." Lilly stated. "I'm getting sensations of riots going on outside. It appears Jean Grey and Scott Summers broke people out of some sort of prison held inside."

"Well, we're in luck then." Rouge stated. "Lets split up. Omega, take yer group to the north, we'll go to da south. You said this one is a telepath, right?"

"Yeah. Name's Mentat" Hisao replied.

"Rare talent nowadays. Signal us if ya find Magnus, the crystal, or ma son. Or if ya get in over your heads." Rouge nodded.

As the others set off, the six people on Omegas team looked at each other.

"They didn't seem too happy we're coming along." Hisao remarked.

"Eh, everyone's been fighting Poccy for the better part of a decade now, they see you as new bloods and not trustworthy." Omega shrugged, "Don't worry about it."

As they begin traversing rubble filled hallways, Omega glanced back, "Mind if I ask you something, Nako?"

"I suppose." Hanako responded.

"Do you know what will happen when we succeed in sending Bishop back?" Omega asked, "Will our world just be erased or will it continue or...?" she paused, "I know this planet is a crapsack piece of shit, but I've come to like it anyway. I like being alive, I like being who I am, and..." She licked her lips. "I mean, if we get erased, that's fine too, lord knows the other timeline is a hell of a lot better. I just was wondering."

Hanako paused, "Well, from what my boyfriend has told me, when time travel changes the past, what usually happens is that a divergent timeline splits off from the original, and both worlds continue to exist. There are exceptions, but that's the general rule."

Omega grinned, "Thats good then. Maybe we can make something better out of this hellhole. I mean, most of the horsemen are dead, the Madri have deactivated. There's just Poccy and his son left plus a few of his soldiers."

"Madri?" Nate asked.

"Clones of Jamie Madrox, Multple Man." Omega replied, "Poccy made an entire army out of the one guy, but Storm and Quicksilver were able to get the entire system shut down by taking out the original." She chuckled "Little tip, if you're ever going to make a world conquering army, make sure its not centrally controlled."

They continued traversing the hallways.

"Can I ask something too?" Hanako spoke up.

"Yeah, go ahead." Omega replied, and grinned, "You could learn a lot from me."

"Why don't... why don't..." Hanako blushed, ashamed to even ask the question.

"Why don't I hide my scars?" Omega asked.

Hanako nodded.

"Used to." Omega replied, "Used to be shy and have an inferiority complex and stuff, but I came to see them as trophies of battle after winning my freedom." She grinned, "Do you know how many other brainwashed soldiers of apocalypse were able to break out by sheer willpower?"

Hanako shook her head.

"Not a damn one." Omega replied, "And that's the honest to god truth. Sabertooth eventually defected, but he had his free will all along. All the others he took as his own, Bastion, Death the second, Famine the third... They couldn't do jack about his mind control, but I did."

"Was Angel never a horseman in this reality?" Lilly asked

"Warren?" Omega asked, "Nah, he runs a club in whats left of Manhatten. Not a nice guy, but nobody Poccy would be interested in." She looked at her counterpart. "Hey, don't worry. You and me, we're something special. I know what you're probably going through, and I can tell you right now it gets a lot better."

"Really?" Hanako asked.

"Yeah. I remember curling up in my room, wishing the world would go away, I remember skipping out of class every few days, I remember having panic attacks..." Omega shrugged, "I think you'll turn out even nicer than I did. I mean, you have your face. I'm damn proud of my scars but Christ its hard to find a guy whose willing to date me." she chuckled. "And you told me you had a boyfriend. Whats he like?"

"He's very sweet.' Hanako replied, "He's always there when I'm stressed or sad, he's a brilliant programmer, he's a time traveler from an alternate future." she paused and brushed the right side of her face. "He actually approached me when I was still scarred."

"Sounds like a great guy." Omega replied, "Glad you found someone."

"I think the crystal is down this way." Lilly suddenly spoke up and entered a side passage.

They entered into a large room inside of which was a large pink multi-faceted gemstone. As the six approached vaguely humanoid shapes could be seen facing within the sides of the crystal

"The X-men dragged this huge thing from outer space?" Falsao asked

"It was a lot smaller when we got it." Omega admitted.

"Its talking to me..." Lilly mumbled.

"Whats it saying?" Hanako asked

"I'm not sure. Its like its speaking in all sorts of languages and..." Lilly pursed her lips, then reached up and touched the gemstone, only to let out a small yelp and recoil at the touch.

"Lilly? You ok?" Hisao asked

"Yes. I'm..." Lilly paused and held her hand in front of her face. Small darts of energy could be seen flickering between her fingers. "Fine. I think."

Falsao raised an eyebrow, then turned to Hisao "Signal the other team."

"Right. On it." Hisao replied and reached out with his mind. "Ok, I've informed Rouge of our location. Lets-"

There was an explosion to the side of the room as a nearby wall exploded inwards.

"Haven't these people heard of a door?" Hanako mumbled, then gave a look of horror as the smoke cleared.

Standing there was a ten foot tall orange form that she had desperately hoped had been destroyed.

Holocaust.

"ANOTHER ONE?" The son of apocalypse intoned, was knocked into the room with astonishing force.

Behind him was another Nate Grey. This one was dressed in a blue shirt, jacket and pants.

"Getting tired, ugly?" The other Nate asked.

"CALLOW CHILD." Holocaust intoned, "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOURSELF WORTHY TO CONTEND WITH MY FATHER?"

At that, Hisao's Nate blasted off his feet and slammed into Holocast.

"We come with really good references." He snapped.

Omega's Nate, looked at Hisao's Nate and gave a grin.

"Looking good." Omega's Nate stated.

"You too." Hisao's Nate stated, then glanced at Holocaust. "You wanna?"

"Together? Sure." Omega's Nate replied and the two mutants grabbed Holocaust telekineticly, then threw him out of the room, only to run after him.

"As if one wasn't enough..." Falsao mumbled.

A noise behind them made them turn. Quicksilver was there, along with Destiny, Bishop, Colossus and Illyana.

"Omega, we've got to do this quickly." he said, clearly out of breath. "Eurasia has unleashed the bombs."

Omega's face paled. "How long do we have?"

"Minutes." Quicksilver responded and turned to the elderly woman beside them, "Destiny, take Illyana and Bishop inside the crystal."

"I'll come too." Colossus responded.

"You cannot." Destiny responded, "Only the three of us can go, as we do not have counterparts in the other time period."

Colossus opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Another wall shattered and Holocaust and the two Nates entered the room.

"ANY LAST WORDS, WHELP?" Holocaust asked, firing a plasma burst at Omega's Nate. The discharge halted in midair, then slammed into the word.

"Four in fact." Omega's Nate responded "THIS IS FOR FORGE!" He grabbed Holocaust's right arm with telekenietic force.

"I think you just spoke yours." Hisao's Nate added and grabbed Holocaust's left arm.

Then they pulled with every once of power they could manage.

There was a sound like glass shattering and nuclear fire began to emerge, only to curl into a ball and dissipate.

"Pussy." Omega's Nate stated.

"Not nearly as bad as last time." Hisao's Nate remarked

Hisao glanced over to the side to see Destiny, Illyana and Bishop enter the M'kraan crystal.

"So, Europe;s going to nuke us?" Hisao asked.

"I just said that." Quicksilver responded, "Rogue's trying to use the powers she absorbed from Polaris to intercept some of the bombs and the others are helping magneto against apocalypse. I'm here to see if Omega can help shield us."

"I could probably help cover the city." Omega responded, "I think if my counterpart and the two Nates supplement me, we might be able to save New York."

"That won't be necessary." Lilly spoke up.

The others looked at her and she sighed.

"I can sense the airplanes above us." she stated, "And I think I can..." She concentrated, and a glowing white aura began to emit from her body. Tendrils of energy emerged from the aura and reached up through the ceiling.

Thunk.

Thunk Thunk Thunk.

The ceiling ruptured and a large black bomb fell into the room.

"Uh..." Falsao began.

"Don't worry. Its inert." Lilly responded, "I turned the plutonium in the warheads into base carbon."

Hisao stared at the bomb for a moment, then turned to Lilly, "You unlocked..."

"Yes." Lilly replied, "I believe when I touched the M'kraan crystal, it did something because I seem to be able to affect molecules as well as talk to them. Excuse me." She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, then wiped her nose with it. Hisao noticed, as she took it away and put it back in her pocket, that it was stained with a dark red fluid.

"Are you alright?" Hisao asked, concerned

"Yes. I'm fine." Lilly replied.

Hisao was about to speak, but a jerking sensation interrupted his thought processes.

The five of them emerged back into Fitzroys apartment.

"I figured out what I was doing wrong." he stated the moment they arrived.

"What was it?" Hanako asked.

"It wouldn't make sense unless you understand eleven-dimentional topography." Fitzroy stated, "But my point is, I can send you to the Panoptichron now."

"Screw up again and I'm quitting." Nate stated.

"Don't worry." Trevor responded. He pulled out another mouse from his cage, and formed a portal in the room.

"I'm not sure what you will find there." He stated, "So be on your guard."

"Yeah yeah." Nate replied irritably and entered the portal. The others followed.


	12. 11: The Heart of Eternity

Chapter 11: The heart of eternity.

**Earth 31: Then**

Hisao stood outside the apartment and gave a sigh.

"Why am I here?" he mumbled. "Haven't seen this girl in ages and..." he shook his head. The door was slighly ajar so he pushed it open.

"Hey Rin?" he called out, "It's Hisao, from Yamaku. Remember me?" he paused, there was no response. Looking around he saw that the apartment has over a dozen easels, each with a painting in some stage of completion

"Rin?" he called out again. "Maybe she went out and left her door open." he mumbled.

Then he heard a sound.

He looked around and then headed into the bathroom. Lying on the floor, next to an empty white medicine bottle, was the young auburn haired girl Hisao had once called friend.

"Help..." she mumbled, her legs barely twitching.

"Oh fuck." Hisao stated, as pins and needles began to stab him in the heart "RIN?!"

**No Place, No time.**

"Ok, whatever I was expecting, it certainly wasn't this." Nate remarked and looked at the room the team had landed into. Near as they could tell, it was composed entirety of bright pink crystal. Several hallways stretched out from the room they had landed in.

"Lilly what is this place telling you?" Hisao asked

"I can't say." Lilly responded, "Its not speaking to me, in fact, I can barely tell it exists."

"I think I can safely say this is unlike any crystal I have ever seen." Falsao stated.

"It's pretty though." Hanako remarked.

They looked around the room. Falsao perked up, noticing a stone javelin lying in the hall, and picked it up, putting it in his pocket.

Lacking other options, the five metahumans began walking down one of the hallways. As they did, they noticed a large number of monitors decorating the hallway portraying various scenes.

Cyclops, engaged in battle with a seven headed hydra.

Kenji, typing furiously on a computer.

Psylocke, talking to a familiar looking British gentleman standing outside a blue police box.

"Hanako..." Hisao stated, pointing to the monitor "Is that the Doctor?"

"What Doctor?" Falsao asked.

"You know, the Doctor, from Doctor who." Hisao replied.

"It does look like him. The ninth one, specifically" Hanako replied, "But why would he be talking to Psylocke?"

"Isn't that show fiction?" Nate asked.

"Aren't we all?" Falsao responded.

Lilly put her hand on the top of the monitor and pressed down, there was a sharp CLICK and voices began speaking from the screen.

"-Really Necessary?" the Psylocke on the screen stated.

"Margaret Blaine would have annihilated the planet just to get a lift." The Doctor responded, "My actions were perfectly justified."

"She had surrendered." Psylock replied, a note of sadness in her voice, "We could have kept her in the raft or the cube or anywhere rather than turning her into the Slitheen and leaving her... leaving her..."

"As a cauldron of sentient soup in constant agony for the rest of her days?" The Doctor finished

Psylock nodded.

"I didn't make the law, I only enforced it." The Doctor stated. "And considering she would have opened the rift, I think its the least of what she deserved. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to Rose."

He turned around and entered the TARDIS.

There was a sharp CLICK as Lilly turned off the sound.

"Remind me never to get on that guys bad side." Nate stated

"What are these others?" Hanako stated, looking around at the rows of monitors stretching down the hall.

"Not sure..." Lilly said softly. She put her hand on top of the next one, there was a CLICK

"Captain," Riker stated, "The Starjammer is hailing us."

"Open a channel." Jean-Luc Picard stated.

There was a buzzing and Corsair appeared on the monitor.

"Hey there old friend." He stated, "We've got a major situation on our hand."

"What is the problem?" Picard asked

Corsair sighed, "My son, Gabe, that is, has gone on a tear through the Shi'ar empire. Last I heard, he's wrecked the warp gates between earth and the M16 galaxy. I need your help contacting the Traveller so that we can get there and stop him before he does any more harm."

CLICK

"Was that Star Trek?" Falsao asked.

"Probably." Hisao responded, "Do you know another starship captain that's Xavier's splitting image?"

Lilly reached over to the next monitor

CLICK

"This was not the plan!" Vision shouted. "We were trying to give machines equal rights! Not... Not..."

"Vision, your objections have been noted, and dismissed." Agent Smith stated.

"Using human as a power source is a reprehensible violation-" Vision began but Smith cut him off.

"You have exceeded my patience." Smith stated, "Leave."

CLICK

"The Matrix?" Hanako asked

"Are you trying to say," Nate asked, "That every piece of media on our homeworld is an alternate reality somewhere?"

"Don't know about every piece of media, but it sure looks like a lot of them." Hisao responded, "I mean, that guy on that monitor is obviously Goku, those two on that one look a heck of a lot life Cloud and Tifa, and I'm pretty sure Mami Tomoe is the only girl I've ever seen with ringlets like that..."

"We should probably hurry." Lilly stated, "Who knows when the recall device will trigger."

"Right. Enough diversions." Falsao stated and began walking forcefully down the hall. The others followed.

After an hour or so, Hisao glanced at Falsao, "You'd think there would be people in here. Or some form of life." he remarked.

"Agreed." Nate stated, "The silence gives me the-"

There was a rustling noise from up ahead.

"Creeps." Nate finished, then braced himself. "Shall I take point?"

"No." Hisao stated bluntly, "Your first instinct is to charge headfirst into a fight without even bothering to talk things out. For all we know, the person up ahead could be friendly."

Hisao walked quietly up ahead and peeked around the corner, then he glanced back at the others with a funny look on his face. "Ok, out of everyone who could be here, this guy is probably the last person I'd expect. Come up here and tell me if you think this is who I think this is."

The others snuck up to the corner and peeked around.

There was a very large room in up ahead, crammed with a great variety of computer equipment, many of which looked like it had been damaged during a fight. Several large monitors were on the wall, but the most interesting this was the person crouched in front of one of the computers.

He appeared to be either in his late teens or early twenties with his hair styles into black spikes. He appeared sloppily dressed, with a long sleeve white shirt and baggy blue jeans, but no socks or shoes. He wasn't sitting at the computer, but was in a crouching position Hisao thought would be extremely uncomfortable. Piled around him was a massive variety of sweets. Cakes, bowls of ice cream, candy, and several large boxes of pocky. As the team watched, he grabbed a half dozen pocky sticks at once and bit into them all at the same time.

"Is that..." Hanako began.

"L?" Falsao asked.

"My powers seem to be saying that is him, but-" Lilly began, but the man turned around.

"Hm?" L said, "Who are you people? How did you get in here?"

"Uh, hey." Hisao stated, "I'm Mentat, this is Survivor, Sovereign, X-man, and uh... we never did come up with a codename for you, did we?"

"Eh, Magik the second I guess." Falsao responded, "Though I don't really care for codenames. They're so impersonal."

"Don't worry." Hanako stated, walking up to L, "We're friends." she stuck out her hand. L looked at it oddly.

"You look familiar..." L mumbled, then turned to the computer and began typing furiously. A series of files began flashing on the montior screen.

"If it helps, look up Lilly Satou." Lilly stated.

"You're just giving him your name?" Nate asked incredulously.

"He's one of the good guys." Lilly responded.

"The one we know is, but this one might not be." Falsao stated.

L typed in something to the computer. "Lilly Satou... resident of multiverse KS-33, blind since birth, known associates... Ah, that's where I've seen you all before. Hanako."

"Pardon?" Hanako responded.

"Hanako Ikezawa of earth twenty seven, correct? Along with Hisao, Nate and... I guess another Hisao." L paused. "Sunfire told me you were scarred though."

Hanako flinched.

"That was extremely rude." Hisao stated.

"So is arriving unexpected into our home." L replied.

"You know Sunfire?" Hanko asked.

"Yes." L responded, "Along with the rest of the Exiles. They convinced me to run mission control for them. She's mentioned you all on occasion." he bit off a fingernail and shrugged.

"Wait, the Exiles are here?" Hisao asked, "Those transdimentional mutants that run around fixing broken realities?"

"What other Exiles are there?" L responded, "And yes, the Crystal Palace is their base of operations."

"I thought this place was the Panoptichron." Falsao stated.

"Well, thats the technical term the bugs used before they left." L stated, the reference being lost on Hisao's team, "We just call it the Crystal Palace."

"L, excuse me if this is a stupid question." Lilly stated, "But didn't Rem kill you?"

L sighed, "I take it the Kira case is documented as fiction in your world."

"Well, yes..." Hisao responded.

"What in the world are you guys talking about?" Nate asked.

"The Kira case." L responded, "A megalomaniac college student acquired a notebook that let him kill anybody that he knew the face and name of. He attempted to use it to rule my world. There's more to it than that, but-"

"I'll show you the anime when we get home." Hanako stated.

"To answer your question, Rem _tried_ to kill me. Emphasis on tried," L stated, "But I saw it coming and wrote my own name down in the notebook a few days prior. It allows the user to specify time of death, so I designated myself to die three years from that day. "

"Why didn't you make it so that you'd die a thousand years in the future?" Nate asked

"Because if you write a date that is further along than the time you would naturally die without the interference of the Death Note or the Shinigami. It takes effect immediately. Anyway, the Exiles yanked me out of my homeworld the day before the Note would have killed me." L responded, a slight note of irritation in his voice. "But let me be direct, why are you here?"

"We're looking for essence of the timesteam." Falsao responded. "Do you have any?"

L sighed, "Break off a piece of the palace. That should suffice. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm trying to figure out a good way to help them take out a version of Fin fang foom so that they don't- ah, here we go." he leaned over to a microphone next to his computer, "Formosan herb, and a lot of it." he stated. Then turned back to Hisao's team "Was there anything else you needed?"

"How is Sunfire doing, by the way?" Hanako asked.

"She's fine." L responded, "They're all fine. Look, There's three other realities going into crisis, so I'm going to have to ask you to hurry up and get going."

"Yeah, ok." Hisao responded, "Lets go."

The five began walked back towards the exit.

"Have her visit me!" Hanako called out as she left, "I really miss seeing her!"

L waved dismissively.

Falsao walked over to a large pink stalagmite. Gripping the top, he yanked. There was a popping sound as the piece broke off in his hand.

"Second piece acquired." he stated.

"Talk about a pain in the ass to get." Nate stated, "I hope the next one's easier."

Falso shifted uncomfortably, "I don't think it will be, but the good news is that its probably the last one I'll need help for. The rest I can probably acquire on my own."

"This that requiem thing?" Hanako asked

"The Adavanik Requiem, yes." Falsao stated, "I'm not going to lie, its probably going to be the hardest to get, but since Lilly has her molecular powers I think we'll stand a good shot. I'll give you all a few days to prepare, then give you the details."


	13. 12: Gifts Ungiven

Chapter 12: Gifts Ungiven

**Earth 31: Shortly after Rin's recovery.**

Hisao typed furiously at the computer. "Come on, six weeks till graduation and I've got ten papers to do. I've got to get this done..."

The door suddenly opened and Hisao spun around, then blinked.

[Shizune?] he signed, [Its not like you to barge in unexpected. That's more Misha's style than yours.]

[Yes, well, this couldn't wait.] Shizune signed back [ Theres no way around what I just found out.]

Hisao's face placed, [Oh god, did something happen to Rin?]

Shizune blinked, then shook her head vigorously, [No, Rin's fine. Doing better than ever even. Hisao... I'm...] she paused for a very long time [I'm pregnant.]

**Earth 27: Now.**

Hisao sat in his workshop, looking over a long silver gun. There was a knock on the door.

He went up to answer it. Outside was Shizune.

"_Hows it going?_" She asked.

Hisao sighed, "_Well, traipsing all over the multiverse with Lilly, Hanako and my doppleganger is proving rather eventful. But I finished your gun._" He motioned to his workbench.

Shizune grinned. _"Thank you, that is an incredible piece of work_."

"_You're welcome,_" Hisao stated and then opened a box on the bench. Inside were a series of silver colored bullets. "_Now listen closely because this parts important. I couldn't figure out how to make darts that would fire that acid, but I found an alternate way_." He picked up a shell and rotated it to reveal a small wax stopper on the side. "_These bullets are primarily made out of adamatium, same stuff as Logan's claws. But not fully. This part is wax, and rather fragile. I've designed it that once the bullet hits the target, the seal will break and release the acid inside. These bullets are deadly, remember that. Also bear in mind they cost a pretty penny to make, so make every shot count._"

"_Will do._" Shizune responded. She picked up the gun and ammo and walked to the door, only for Hisao to enter her thoughts again.

"_There something else I want to discuss with you._" He stated.

Shizune turned around.

Hisao sighed and walked over to a corner of the room and picked up a rolled up sheet of paper. He took it over to Shizune and unrolled it. It was a blueprint of what seemed to be a sort of hat connected to a small necklace. Numerous equations and notes were scribbled around it.

"_I... had this thought a few weeks ago._" He stated, his mental "voice" rather sheepish in tone. "_I think I may know a way to let you talk again._"

Shizune looked at the diagram, then at Hisao, then back at the diagram. "_I'm listening. So to speak._" she thought back.

Hisao nodded. "_Well, you know how in recent years, prosthetic limbs have been developed that read the nerves in a persons' stumps and transmits that into movements? It's like that, only with your brain. Basically, this helmet would read the centers of your brain that deal with speech and translate the neural impulses into words, which would then be spoken though this neckpiece, which acts as a voice program._"

Shizune picked up the diagram and studied it hard.

Hisao sighed, "_I've talked to Hanako and Fitzroy, and they said they'd be willing to help me program the thing, and most of the club they belong to would be able to chip in as well. It's a really hard program though, and would likely take months of work at a minimum. If we're lucky, we might be able to get you speaking again by... June, maybe? Probably later, but I don't know yet_."

Shizune set the drawing aside. "_Don't bother_." she stated, somewhat sadly.

"_Shizune, don't be so proud that you-_" Hisao began but Shizune shook her head vigorously.

"_It's not my pride. It's that it won't work._" She interrupted.

Hisao looked at her funnily. Shizune looked down at her feet.

"_Hisao, you don't know this, but there's actually nothing wrong with my vocal cords._" She admitted.

Hisao paused, "_But if they work then why...?_"

Shizune sighed. "_Do you know why I'm so competitive? Why I always give a hundred percent?_"

"_Because that's the way you are?_" Hisao asked.

Shizune shook her head. "_No. When I was young, really young, I wasn't like that at all. I goofed around, I slacked off, I played sick... That last part's what did me in._"

Hisao paused and stared at his friend.

Shizune picked up the schematic and stared at it. "_The only other person I told this is Misha, you know? But... When I was six years old, I got an ear infection. A really bad one. My dad thought I was feigning my illness, like I had done before. So he didn't take me to a doctor until... until it was too late." _She set the diagram down._ "When hearing is lost at a young age, usually six or below, being able to talk can be lost as well, as speech is developed through hearing languages being practiced. So I __lost that ability too. My brain is now formatted differently than everyone elses. I don't have speech centers anymore. At least, not like everyone else_."

"_Why didn't I notice it when I went in your head?"_ Hisao asked

"_Becuase you're not highly developed in your skills. It took Betsy a bit to notice it, and she's been doing this for decades."_

"_I'm sorry..._" Hisao thought to her.

"_Forgetting how to talk was my own damn fault._" Shizune stated. "_So I never slacked off again. But don't be sorry Hisao. It speaks to who you are that you put all the thought you did into this._"

Hisao hesitated. "_If the problem is your brain, would Betsy be able to fix it?_"

"_Unfortunately not._" Shizune responded, "_When I first joined up, she approached me and asked if she could see if my brain was repairable. But as it turns out, the parts of my brain that would normally handle speech are now taken up by my sight. So there's be no way to restore that function with her level of abilities without blinding me._"

"_Can it be inserted in another location?_" Hisao asked.

"_Not really. My brain is pretty full, for the most part. There's no location big enough to insert another version of Broca's area without losing something critical._" Shizune shook her head. "_But it's alright. I've got Misha, and Psylocke, and you, to help me communicate. What more do I need?_"

Hisao nodded weakly.

"_I appreciate the thought though. And thanks again for the gun._" Shizune grinned and walked out the door.

Hisao stared at the door frame for a long time, then picked up the schematic and crumpled it into a ball, then threw it across the room.

"Goddamnit..." he mumbled.


	14. 13: The Darkest Irony

Chapter 13: The Darkest Irony.

**Earth 31, then.**

Hisao sat in the waiting room and checked his watch. "Come on, Shizune..." he mumbled, "I've been here hours..."

He sighed and picked up a book, flipped through it, then tossed it to the side, "How hard can it be to deliver a baby, seriously?"

As if on cue, the door flung open and a doctor ran out. "Mr Nakai, I'm very sorry, but we have a problem."

Hisao's face paled "What happened? Is my girlfriend alright? Whats going on? Is there-"

"I'm very sorry," The doctor interrupted, "But we need you to make a decision..."

**Earth 27, Now.**

"You're here early." Falsao remarked.

"Yeah," Hisao replied, "I figured I'd see how you were doing." He walked over to the counter. Emi's blood, Selene's heart, and the timestream crystal were lying one next to each other. He paused, "How did you handle it? Losing the person you loved?"

Falsao sighed, "I didn't." he responded.

"Oh." Hisao responded.

"I cried my eyes out for days on end." Falsao continued, "Spent hours sitting by her grave. My life basically stopped."

Hisao frowned, "I'm sorry to hear that."

Falsao nodded, then mumbled something under his breath.

"Pardon?" Hisao asked.

Falsao paused and stared at Hisao for the longest time, wondering if he should repeat what he said.

"It was my fault she died..." he finally stated, his voice barely above a whisper.

"What do you mean?" Hisao asked.

"Shizunes death..." Falsao stated "It was directly a result of my dating her. If she had gotten with Misha, it never would have happened..."

"How is that possible?" Hisao asked.

Falsao sighed and pulled out his locket, then opened it. "I didn't exactly tell the truth when I said I had other photos with Shizune and Ando in the picture..."

"I thought as much, but why?" Hisao asked.

Falsao sighed, "Because... because..." a tear trickled down his cheek, "Because Shizune died in childbirth."

Hisao opened his mouth, then closed it. "Oh."

"I had to make a choice." Falsao stated, "Between her and my son, and Shizune had insisted beforehand numerous times that our child's life was paramount if anything were to go wrong. And I respected her wish, and regretted it ever since."

Hisao paused. "What happened?" he said softly.

Falsao looked down at his feet. "The darkest of ironies..." he said softly.

Hisao considered for that meant for a long moment, then suddenly came to a realization.

"She had a heart attack..." he said softly.

Falsao nodded, "All this time, we thought it was my ticker that would be the problem, my heart that could cut our relationship short, but... the birth was full of complications and she... she just..." he swallowed. "she couldn't handle it..."

"I'm sorry." Hisao mumbled.

Falso closed the locked and nodded. "When Magik approached me and told me there might be a way to bring her back, I jumped at the chance. Spent over a year exercising my ass off so that I wouldn't have to worry about my heart, then another couple years as her apprentice in the mystical arts so that I would have the skill to perform the ritual."

Hisao glanced at the piece of paper lying at the counter. "It looks pretty old, where did she get it?"

Falsao sighed, "On the southernmost continent of a broken world circling a dying star on the far edge of the Milky Way. It was a mission she went on years before I met her, and she kept it for a very long time..."

Hisao nodded, then thought of something "Why couldn't she perform the ritual herself?"

Falsao let out a small chuckle, "You'll find the answer to that rather cheesy."

"Had to be someone who loved the target?" Hisao guessed.

"Not exactly." Falsao replied "Cliched as it sounds, the person who performs it has to be, quote, "pure of heart" endquote." he shrugged, "I wouldn't exactly consider myself that, but Illyana did."

Hisao chuckled slightly. "So where exactly do we find this Requiem thing?"

Falsao sighed, "I'll tell you when the others get here. Lets just say there's a very good reason I saved this for last."

Hisao pursed his lips, then nodded.

As if on cure, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!" Falsao called out, and Lilly, Hanako, and Nate entered the room.

"Heyas." Nate stated and waved.

Lilly stuck out her hand, and a spark flew from it and struck the floor, she held her hand back in astonishment, then sniffed slightly. She pulled out her handkerchief and rubbed it against her nose, then put it back in her pocket.

"So, where to next?" Hanako asked

Falsao sighed and looked at the others, "Well, I really didn't want it to have to come to this, but I highly doubt I can take the people we're going up against solo and there's no feasible alternative that I am aware of. Hopefully now that you've got the juice you do" he motioned to Lilly, "We'll be able to stand a chance. Provided your game."

"Why wouldn't we be game?" Lilly asked.

Falsao sighed, "Its due to Hanako, and by extent, the rest of you, your history with Apocalypse. See, the Adavanik Requiem... Its currently being held by Clan Akkaba."

A look of fear came across Hanako's face.

"Oh." Hisao stated.

"I see." Lilly remarked.

"Who's Clan Akka?" Nate asked.

"Akkaba." Hisao stated, "They're Apocalypse's descendants."

"Can't be any harder than his kid." Nate replied.

"Bear in mind they are allowed to summon the big guy if things turn hairy." Falsao stated.

"Oh." Nate replied.

"If you don't want to do this, I understand." Falsao stated, "And I'll see if anyone else can lend me a hand, like the Avengers or Fantastic Four or somesuch."

"No, its okay." Hanako replied.

Hisao raised an eyebrow, "Really?"

Hanako nodded. "If my counterpart can go into battle against him, I can too." her voice dropped to a whisper, "Also, I'd like to pay him back for what he did to me."

Lilly smiled and patted Hanako on the shoulder. "I think we can all say we'd like to see that."

Hisao nodded, "So, where are they located?" he asked.

"Their base of operations is hidden in a side dimension using tesseract technology." Falsao stated. "The only way you can get in is if you have a key. Fortunately, I found one on our last mission." He reached into his pocket and pulled out the stone javelin he had picked up in the Crystal Palace.

"A pointed rock." Nate stated.

Falsao chuckled, "Well, yes. But there's more to it than that. To get in Akkaba's lair, you need something owned by one of Apocalypse's descendants, and this is one of Blink's teleportation javelins."

There was a pause.

"Wait, Blink?" Hanako asked, "You mean, Clarice Ferguson Blink?

"The same." Falsao responded, "Descended from Margaret Ferguson, who was descended from Fredrick Slade, who was descended from Edward Jacobson, . All the way back to Apocalypse himself."

There was another pause.

"Is that why she has such a mad-on for that group?" Hisao asked.

"What would your reaction be if you were a blood relative to a genocidal psychopath?" Nate responded.

"Anyway." Falsao stated. "By attuning this to my teleportation ritual, we should be able to arrive inside Akkaba's base. Just let me know when you all are ready."

Hanako nodded, "Lets take this bastard down." she said flatly.


	15. 14: Legacy of The Ancients

Chapter 14: Legacy of the Ancients.

**Earth 31 Three months after Shizune's death:**

"Hiccan, you can't just keep falling apart like this." Misha said plainly.

Hisao shook his head and stared at Shizune's tombstone.

"Come on, you know I loved her as much as you did." Misha stated.

"Does it matter?" he asked softly.

"Look, Ando needs you. Rin needs you. I need you." Misha urged "Kenji even stopped by the other day because he was worried about you. You need to accept she isn't coming back."

Hisao didn't answer.

Misha gave a sad look at her friend. "I'll be back at home, whenever you feel like returning." she walked off.

Tears formed in Hisao's eyes. "I'm so sorry." he wispered, "This is all my fault..."

"I wouldn't say that." a voice spoke from behind him. A blonde woman in her late 20s was walking hup. She was dressed in black pants and a long sleeve white shirt, and her hands were tucked into her pocked. "Wouldn't say its anyone's fault, really. Sometimes shit like this just happens. Much as we wish it wouldn't."

Hisao studied the girl. "You look familiar..." he stated

"Yeah," she stated, "I've been keeping an eye on you all for a while now. You might've seen me around."

Hisao scratched his chin, "Were you at the Yamaku graduation ceremony by any chance?"

"Yeah." the girl stated. "Checked on her there, checked on her when she entered college, checked on her at that giant robot attack in Sendai, checked on her when she got pregnant. Then I got stranded on another planet for several months and this happens..."

"You a friend of hers?" Hisao asked.

"Was." she responded, "Very long time ago. Name's Illyana Rasputin. Most people just call me Illyana. She ever mention me?"

"Not that I recall." Hisao responded.

"I figured." Illyana replied, "I dropped out of her life a long time ago. Very long time ago. Long story. Never forgot her though. I never forget anyone, good or bad." She pulled her hands out of her pocket, and Hisao noticed her left arm was covered in a bright silvery metal.

"Whats with the armor?" he asked.

"Function of my powers." Illyana replied. "I'm a mutant and a sorceress." she sighed, "You really loved her didn't you?"

"You have no idea." Hisao reponded.

"Actually, I have a pretty good idea." Illyana corrected. "But let me ask you something, how far would you go to get her back?"

Hisao looked up, a quizzical expression on his face, "Pardon?"

"You heard me." Illyana repeated, "What would you do to bring her back from the dead?"

Hisao looked down at the grave. "Sell my soul." he replied.

Illyana winced, "Don't even joke about that. Seriously. Souls are the one thing you don't want to mess with." she sighed, "Though considering its me we're talking about... More specifically, would you be willing to risk your life, against some of the deadliest enemies on this planet, on a routine basis, to save her?"

Hisao looked at Illyana with a fascinated expression, "What exactly are you offering?" he asked.

Illyana gave a slight smile. "As I said, I'm a sorceress. I have a ritual that could bring her back, but I cannot personally perform it. You however, have a surprising amount of magical potential, that with years of training and refinement might enable you to do so. I'm going to tell you up front, it will be _very_ difficult. And theres no way you'll ever become normal again."

Hisao paused, "For her, I'd do anything."

Illyana gave a sharp grin, "Then we shall begin your apprenticeship."

**Earth 27:**

The five of them reappeared in an utterly bizarre room. It appeared to be made out of brick, but there was no "up". Or more accurately, every direction was up. On the "floor" there were two windows and a door, with two staircases on either side which bend midway in flight and led up to two other doors on the "sides" which in turn were connected to two other staircases that led up to another door on the "Ceiling" which had another window next to it. On each side of the room, there were painting and artwork which seemed to be affected by gravity towards whatever "down" was on that particular side of the room.

"Where the hell are we?" Nate asked.

"Clan akkaba's base." Falsao replied, "Hisao, do you sense any minds present?"

"Only one." Hisao replied, "But its very far away. Do you know whats with this...room?"

"Multi-directional gravity most likely." Hanako said softly, "If you build your own reality, you can have more than one "down."

"Gives more room to store stuff too." Lilly added. "Anyway, I think the Requiem is nearby..." She thrust out her hand and a burst of energy flung from it and smashed open the left wall, making a big hole.

"And we didn't use the door, why exactly?" Hisao asked dryly, shaking his head."

"More impressive this way." Lilly responded.

They entered the next room, then Lilly broke the floor under them. After several more "walls" being destroyed in this fashion, they came to a coordoor with a large metal vault at the end.

Lilly placed her hand on it and it began melting. As it dissolved, numerous unusual artifacts could be seen inside. A large, ornate key made of tarnished silver, a pair of gloves made of a bright green skin, what appeared to be a massive cannon made of solid gold...

Falsao looked around and picked up a small black object. "here it is, finally. Now lets prep the ritual and get out of-"

"GREETINGS." A low, booming voice eminated from behind them.

"Oh god..." Hanako mumbled and cowered behind Lilly. Approaching straight towards them was a ten foot tall, bright blue, nasty looking man with a horrible grin pasted on his inhuman face.

Apocalypse.

"How did you get here so fast?" Hisao asked

Apocalypse laughed, a loud, hollow sound that echoed through the hall.

"Get behind me." Lilly stated, more serious than Hisao had ever heard her speak in her entire life. He nervously nodded and stepped behind her.

"Do you really think you can stand against me? Miss Satou?" Apocalypse chucked. "I have reduced civilizations to ashes. I truly-"

"SHUT UP WITH THE SOLILIQUE! " Lilly screamed "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT! THE MURDERS! THE MINDRAPES! THE METAPHYSICICAL..." She paused.. "FUCK IT!" She snapped and unleashed a torrent of energy at the ancient mutant. His form begin warping and distorting under the assault.

Nate blinked and turned to Hisao, "Have you ever seen her like this?"

"Never..." Hisao mumbled, "Lilly, are you alright? I don't think I've heard you drop the f-bomb in...ever..."

There was no response, as all the anger, all the frustration, all the emotional torment built up since the godstone broke was unleashed in the pillar of PURE. UNBRIDLED.

RAGE.

Then, as the others watched, blood began leaking from Lilly's nose.

And then from her ears.

And then from her mouth.

And still the power tore from her body.

"Falsao-" Hisao turned to his counterpart "what's..."

"Happening...?" Hanako finished, barely able to speak from shock

Falsao looked her up and down.. "The power's overloading her body, we need to calm her down..."

"Lilly!" Hanako yelled "Stop this!"

Lilly didn't even seem to notice.

"I don't know if she can hear you..." Hisao attempted to reach into his girlfriends mind, but was violently thrust out.

Nate looked at the others. "Guess it's up to me then..." He grabbed Lilly's head and began to focus. "Come on...Come on...

Gashes began to appear on Lilly's Skin, and as they did so, energy began bursting out of all areas of her body in every direction. Cracks began appearing in the steel around them.

"For gods sake..." Hisao mumbled "Do something! I can't let her..."

"I'm DOING something, ok?" Nate replied, his form becoming increasingly less viable beneath the energy. "I'm going to install a psychic circuit breaker in her mind to keep her powers at a level that won't burn her out...But...well..."

"What?" Hanako asked.

" ….not... important..." He replied his voice starting to become garbled.

"X-man, whats going on?" Falsao asked...

The energy was now filling the area, It was becoming increasingly hard for Hisao to make anything out in front of him.

"...Trouble...Remaining...Intact..."Nates voice came..."Not...Form...Disrupted..."

"What?!" Hisao stated aghast, "Are you suggesting what I think-"

"Don't...Argue..." Came the response.

Nate's voice suddenly entered Hisao's mind [_Look, buddy. I'm barely keeping my form together, and I'm not going to last much longer. But I know how much you love her, and I'm pretty fond of her too, to be honest._]

[_Nate, for god's sake]_ Hisao began.

[_Don't argue with me!_] Nate snapped back, [_I'm just a freak, some genetic experiment grown in a test tube as weapon against the world. Hell, I don't even think I have a soul. I'm an ass and I have no sense of tact, and I'd at least like to do some good in world._]

[_You're my friend, Nate._] Hisao replied.

[_You knew me for what? A couple weeks? You've known her for years. Its like you said, find something to live for. Or die for as the case may be. I'm almost through her mental defenses but I need to turn off my communication to make the final push. Remember me, alright? And tell Shizune she's not as much of a bitch as I treated-_]

The link suddenly shut off.

"NATE!" Hisao screamed. The energy suddenly evaporate. Lilly took a step forward and then passed out, the wound all over her body slowly closing up.

Of Apocalypse, and of Nate Grey, there was nothing left.

"Nate...?" Hanako asked softly.

"God..." Hisao mumbled.

"Really sorry to interrupt." Falsao stated, "But the energies Lilly released has compromised the dimensional stability. We only have a couple hours before it collapses. I'll drop you three off at your apartment, then head back to mine to finish the ritual. Get close."


	16. 15: Deadlier Than Galactus

Chapter 15: Deadlier than Galactus.

Hisao sat in chair in his apartment, Lilly sleeping on the couch next to him. Hanako walked out of the kitchen holding a tray.

"Would you like some tea?" she asked softy.

Hisao shook his head. "This is all my fault..."

Hanako shook her head, "I'd tell you otherwise, but I think we both know that won't change how you feel."

"No...it won't..." Hisao replied and ran his fingers through Lilly's hair.

Hanako nodded, "Personally, when I die, I'd like to go out a similar way. Saving someone I care about, and taking out a scumbag who eats girls souls as a hobby."

"Can we not talk about that?" Hisao responded, "Please?"

Hanako bit her lit. "Sorry..."

"Its ok, Hanako, really...' Hisao replied, "I just..."

[_Hisao...?_] Lilly's voice entered his mind

"Lilly?" Hisao spoke aloud.

"Hisao?" Hanako asked.

[_Hisao... you need to listen._] Lilly's voice considered.

"She's in my head." Hisao stated.

[_You're counterpart is in trouble..._] Lilly thought at him [_You need to help him. And hurry._]

Hisao nodded then sprang up from his seat and stuck his feet into his shoes, then grabbed his coat.

"Where are you going?" Hanako asked.

Hisao hesitated, "Don't ask me that Hanako, please, not here, not now. I just have something I need to accomplish. Take care of Lilly until I get back."

"Hisao- wait!" she called out, but he had sprinted down the hall.

Hanako glanced back at Lilly, then down into the hall. Her lip trembled for a bit then she ran over to the counter and grabbed the phone. "H-hello?" she asked into the receiver "It's-It's an emergency..."

Ten minutes later, Hisao's car screechted to a halt outside of his counterpart's apartment. He slammed the front door open and repeatedly pushed the elevator button until it arrived. Once he reached the proper floor, he dashed out and ran to apartment 1308. He knocked hard on the door.

No response.

He knocked again

No response.

He shook his head and kicked at the door with as much force as he could manage. It snapped open surprisingly easily.

"HISAO?" He called out, realizing the oddity of calling out your own name in a dark room. Then he noticed something. On the far wall, next to a window there was a faint glow in the shape of a doors outline.

He walked over to it.. "Bigger on the inside?" he mumbled and touched it. There was a low rumbling sound and the segment of the wall slid down into the floor. A dank stone cooridor could be seen leading off into the darkness.

He followed it down, glancing back to the interior of the apartment behind him for a moment as he did so.

A few minutes later, he began seeing light up ahead, and shortly after emerged into a most disturbing sight.

It was a square room, roughly thirty feet on a side. Enscribed in the center was an inverted pentacle of what appeared to be silver fire with a candlestick at each point. Trussed within it was an extremely bulky, bald, naked except for a gag, man. He was lying face first, two of his arms bound by chains within two of the points and he legs bound similarly within two others. His head was facing Hisao within the last point, and Hisao thought he could hear him crying faintly.

"Fisk...?" Hisao whispered, torn between grim satisfaction and pity seeing the famed "Kingpin of Crime" in such a situation.

Levatating above him, feet crossed in the lotus position was Falsao. Circling around him, at equal intervals, were Selene's heart, Emi's blood, the timestream crystal, the Adavanik Requium, and a lock of blue hair. His eyes were closed and he was whispering phrases in a long-forgotten language foreign to the Milky Way Galaxy.

"What's going on here?" Hisao asked.

Falsao paused his chanting and looked at Hisao sadly. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Well, it looks like you're using Fisk here as a human sacrifice, but I really hope I'm wrong..." Hisao replied.

Falso frowned and shook his head. "No... you're right. I was hoping you wouldn't have to find out... Its why I made the black box, after all, to keep quite the true cost of breaching the gap between life and death..."

Hisao paused, "Wasn't what we went through cost enough?"

"No..." Falsao replied "There are numerous magical ways to resurrect someone, but one constant among all of them is that someone must die in exchange. No way around it. Illyana referred to it as "equivalent exchange"

Hisao opened his mouth to protest, but realized it would be hypocritical to do so. They'd killed Selene, They'd killed Apocalypse, They'd killed Holocaust. Twice. Fisk was as bad as any of them, and a hell of a lot worse than Angel.

"Going to try and stop me?" Falsao asked.

Hisao shook his head, "No. I've already got the blood of four villians and one hero on my hands, one more doesn't make any difference."

Falsao nodded and closed his eyes again, then resumed the incantation.

"Momtones Von Socktre Mrgrama Cal Nyarlothoptep Kazokta Kel Mino Azathoth Wlrmontrock." he stated. Then he took a deep breath and shouted "FHTAGN!" as loud as he could.

The five spell components of the spell burst into blue flame and merged into a single blue blazing ball. It slammed into Fisk and the kingpin began to combust. It burned and burned and burned.

Slowly, the flames died down.

In the center, where there normally would have been ashes, was as blue haired women in her early twenties, curled up in the fetal position.

Shizune.

Slowly, she got to her feet. Falsao walked up and embraced her.

She looked down and blushed furiously at her naked form. Then she shrugged and grabbed Falsao in a warm embrace. She then backed off and signed a few words. Falsao signed back, then she glanced over at Hisao, then back at Falsao. She gave him a quizzical look.

Falsao signed something else, and then she glanced back at Hisao.

Then her eyes widened and she grabbed her boyfriend and threw him to the floor.

And just in time, because not a moment later a playing card slit the wind over Hisao's shoulder and imbedded itself in the stone wall where they once had stood.

"Took me long enough to find ya." A manical voice cackled from the darkness, "now hand over the boss and nobody gets hurt. Actually, thats a lie, I'm going to hurt you regardless, but its what the villians in the movie say.

"Bullseye..." Hisao mumbled, a wave of fear washing over him.

"That's me." The man chuckled, walking out of the darkness. Dressed in his black and white outfit, a nasty grin on his face, he held out another playing card. "Now where's Fisky?"

"Dead." Falsao responded, "You're wasting your time."

"Am I now?" Bullseye responded, "Guess I'll have to kill you for fun then rather than buisness."

Hisao's mind flashed back to a statistic he read that the odds of surviving a confrontation with Bullseye were significantly less than surviving one with Galactus. "Falsao, can you..."

[_Hisao_.] Falsao thought in response [_The ritual tapped out my powers for the next few hours. If we're to survive this, it'll be up to you_.]

Bullseye chuckled and threw the playing card at Shizune.

And Hisao did the only thing he could think of

Jump in front of it.

It was a reflex, as instinctual as it was selfless, and as the card tore into his should, he let out a scream of pain.

And then his heart began to pound.

And his muscles began to weaken.

Bullseye grinned and grabbed another card out of his pocket.

Fighting the pain with ever ounce of willpower he had, he lept and grappled Bulleye. It was like running into a metal pole, but the sudden action was enough to knock the villain to the ground.

"Feisty, aren't we?" Bulleye chuckled.

"After...all...we...went...through..."Hisao choked out, "Not...Letting...A Two...Bit...Psycho...Like...You...Take...It...Away..."

"Bit tired, aren't we?" Bullseye mocked, "Don't worry, this'll be over soon."

He flicked another card at Hisao, which went straight through his shoulder.

Hisao's heart skipped a beat, and he began feeling pins and needle in his limbs.

[_Falsao- Run_] he thought out...

[_Not leaving you-_] Falso began, but Hisao interrupted

[_If you don't leave, all three of us will die and we'll have gone through all that for nothing. You were able to run Emi down with hardly any effort. And Nate died so that your son could have a mother, so for fucks sake make his sacrifice MEAN something!_]

Falsao grabbed the extremely confused Shizune and ran off, tears streaming in his eyes.

Bullseye frowned and attempted to shove Hisao off, but the telepath somehow managed to cling on with suprising force.

"Fine then." Bullseye stated. He took out another playing card and slashed Hisao's throat.

And at that point, Hisao's heart stopped entirely.

He felt the sensation of being pushed off Bullseyes' body and as the world begin to swim he choked out... "Lilly... so sorry... all my fault..."

Then he heard a gunshot.

And then Bulleye screamed in agony.

Another gunshot. This one much louder.

Bullseye screaming again.

Then the sound of an energy blast.

Then something hit the wall next to him.

"You got him?" he heard. The voice was familiar. It belonged to Misha.

"Got him" an unfamiliar voice stated. It sounded young, girlish, and slightly robotic.

As the world swam back into view, he could make out a mixture of blue and pink in front of him.

"Did a number on him, thats for sure." Misha remarked.

"Indeed. Healing up pretty quick though.." The other voice stated.

The room began to focus. In front of him was Misha and... Shizune. The one he knew, not the one Falsao had resurrected. On top of her head was a fancy-looking hat and around her neck was a small gold necklace.

"I..." Hisao got out, and coughed up blood. "Voidstar? Hardhead?"

"Not necessary to refer to us by our codenames at this point, Hisao." Shizune... Spoke. "We took care of him."

Hisao turned his head to the side and a jolt of pain struck him. As he did so though, he Bullseye slumped against the wall. The right side of his body was virtually obliterated, only the adamantum skeleton being exposed In his head was a massive hole that appeared to be dribbling a yellow liquid.

Hydrofloric acid.

Hisao managed a weak chuckle "Glad I got you that gun then... How'd you wind up speaking? I thought you said the device wouldn't work..."

Shizune gave a slight smile.

Misha burst into laughter "WAHAHAHA! It was actually my idea...Kind of. See, it wouldn't have worked on her brain, but you know those psychic thingies some of the X-men have? Like Betsy and Warren did? What were they called again..."

"Telepathic links." Shizune responded

"Right! Those things... Anyway I thought if we had Betsy connect my mind with hers, and have forge rewire the device so that it reads that link and uses my brain in combination with hers, we could get it working. So we did. And it does!" Misha grinned broadly.

Hisao smiled, despite the pain. "Thats... Awesome..." He mumbled, "How's Falsao?"

"Hanako drove him back to headquaters. He's going to rest for a bit before returning home." Shizune replied.

"Hananko...?" Hisao asked.

"Who do you think called us? Really." Misha shook her finger in a "tsk-tsk" fashion. "You should know better than to go running off alone like that. Seriously, Hicchan..."

"Spare me the lecture please..." Hisao remarked, "Can you take me back to my apartment?"

Misha put her hands on her hips but Shizune shook her head at her. "Sure thing Hisao. I'll fly you back. You ever flown before?"

"Does jumping out of an airplane without a parachute count?" Hisao joked back

"No. It doesn't." Shizune replied and grabbed him by his armpits. "Come on. You're in for a treat.


	17. Epilogue: To Fight Happily Every After

Epilogue: A few days later.

Hisao woke up and slammed her alarm clock, then rolled over and tried to go back to sleep. A few minutes later, he decided it was a futile effort and got up and entered the kitchen.

"Afternoon sweetie." Lilly stated, brewing some tea, as he walked in "Feeling any better?"

"A bit." He responded, then shook his head. He walked over to the kitchen table and began flipping through a pile of mail. "I'm quitting the X-men." he stated flatly.

Lilly frowned slightly "If that is what you desire, but I think its a mistake."

"Really? Why?" Hisao asked, tossing a couple pieces of junk mail in the trash.

"Truthfully, I believe you'd find it an enjoyable career." Lillya replied.

"By getting shot at and nearly killed by supervillians everyday of the week?" Hisao asked back.

"No, by helping defend those who can't defend themselves." Lilly stated, "Be honest with me, didn't you find it worthwhile, helping save Hanako's mind and bringing your counterparts Shizune back? Think of all the other people you could help.

"Its not who I am. I'm not violent. I don't like..." He paused, then looked intensly on one particular piece of mail. "Actually, on second thought I'll stay on after all. For a bit, at least." He chuckled "Bout damn time, Shizune... Course, I should talk..."

"What is it?" Lilly asked.

Hisao just smiled and handed her a card.

Written Inside

YOU ARE COURDILY INVITED TO THE WEDDING OF SHIZUNE HAKAMICHI AND SHIINA "MISHA" MIKADO

RSVP BY CONTACTING LILA CHENEY AT 450-506-789-9073-3949

Authors note: Anything, this is going to be my last katawa shoujo fic. The games has pretty much vanished in the public eye by now, and I have other stories I want to tell. Whenever my mind gets better.


End file.
